Hot tub planning trends
The hot tub planning index stands at 289: almost three times its 2016 share, 4% below its 2021 peak and up from a 2024 low.
Hot tub applications since 2016
Hot tub applications in every 10,000 planning applications, over the 12 months to each month
How this is measuredShare back near the 2021 high
Applications peaked at 242 in the 12 months to December 2021, fell to 110 in the year to April 2024 and are back to 158. The hot tub planning index stands at 289 against a peak of 303: almost three times the 2016 share.
Q3 2026 against a year earlier
Councils received 43 hot tub applications in Q3 2026: 4.2 in every 10,000 applications, against 3.7 in Q3 2025, a share of all applications 12% higher than a year earlier.
Hot tub applications each quarter
43 in Q3 2026, against 41 a year earlier.
Out of every 10,000 applications
As a share of every application: 4.2 in every 10,000 in Q3 2026, against 3.7 a year earlier.
Where hot tub applications concentrate
Councils with the most
Applications since 2016
-
North Yorkshire
Yorkshire and Humber · 5.6 in every 10,000 38 -
Wiltshire
South West · 4.8 in every 10,000 27 -
Cornwall
South West · 3.4 in every 10,000 26 -
Lake District National Park
North West · 19 in every 10,000 24 -
Durham
North East · 7.6 in every 10,000 21 -
East Riding of Yorkshire
Yorkshire and Humber · 7.1 in every 10,000 21 -
West Northamptonshire
East Midlands · 5.6 in every 10,000 20 - Maidstone and Swale (shared register)
South East · 6.1 in every 10,000 18 -
South Norfolk and Broadland (shared register)
East of England · 6.4 in every 10,000 18 -
Cotswold
South West · 8.5 in every 10,000 17
Latest hot tub applications
- 4 Wimborne Avenue, Chislehurst Single storey outbuilding to rear of garden accommodating a gym, office, Jacuzzi and toilet . LAWFUL DEVELOPMENT CERTIFICATE (PROPOSED)
- 3 Lime Avenue Camberley Surrey Erection of a single storey rear outbuilding with raised decking, landscaping of rear garden to include; relocation of existing hot tub, proposed aluminium pergola and outdoor lounge, extension of existing patio, installation of outdoor pool, removal of trees, low-level retaining walls, new perimeter paths and children's play area. To include widening of driveway access and associated alterations.
- Land At Sibton Estate Yoxford Road Sibton Yoxford Suffolk Construction of a boathouse style structure and associated facilities to provide leisure, recreation, wellness or dining together with hot tub, lakeside terrace, access, parking/turning, landscaping and associated works
- Land Adjacent To Barnacarry Strathlachlan Argyll And Bute Erection of 6 tourism lodges with associated hot tubs, saunas and bike stores, formation of access and parking, installation of biodisc treatment plant and associated works
- 38 Hilldale Road Backwell Certification of Lawful Development for the construction of an outbuilding consisting of store, gym, sauna, steam room, hot tub, and shower.
- Purleigh Grange Chelmsford Road Purleigh Chelmsford Essex Single-storey rear extension incorporating swimming pool, sauna, toilet and jacuzzi.
Questions
How many hot tub planning applications are there in the UK?
Councils have received 1,466 since January 2016, 158 of them in the 12 months to September 2026. Their share peaked in the 12 months to December 2021.
Which councils receive the most hot tub applications?
North Yorkshire, Wiltshire and Cornwall have received the most since 2016.
Are hot tub planning applications rising?
Yes, as a share. Councils received 158 in the 12 months to September 2026, and the hot tub share of applications was 19% higher than three years earlier. The hot tub planning index peaked in December 2021.
Why do so few hot tubs appear in planning records?
A garden hot tub is usually treated as an outbuilding under permitted development. Listed buildings, conservation areas and structures built around a tub are the usual exceptions. These figures count applications, not tubs.
About Plota
Plota is the UK's most visited planning search, according to Similarweb. It shows every new planning application from every UK council, read daily from 390 planning registers, with past applications back to 2016 from more than 420 registers, including those of councils since merged. It also covers planning committee decisions, HMO licences and premises licences.
How this is measured
What needs an application
A garden hot tub is usually permitted development. Tubs at listed buildings or in conservation areas, and structures built around a tub, need planning permission.
Methodology
- What is counted: planning applications to UK councils whose description names hot tubs or a close variant of the words, by the date each council received them. These are planning applications, not completed schemes; the largest energy and infrastructure projects are consented nationally rather than by councils, so they sit outside these counts.
- How matches are checked: we read the 200 most recent hot tub applications and 20 from every year since 2016 to confirm each one belongs.
- Topic counts leave out, by design, works to trees and applications that only discharge conditions, amend an earlier permission or approve reserved matters, which follow a scheme already counted. Everything else is counted.
- A share is the number out of every 10,000 applications over the previous 12 months. Each topic is a number in every 10,000 planning applications, so trends compare when overall planning activity changes; the share still moves when either the topic's count or the total does. The hot tub planning index sets the 2016 share at 100, so 200 means twice as common as in 2016.
- Source: the planning registers of every UK council, January 2016 to September 2026, read on 9 November 2026.
- Planning is seasonal, so each quarter is compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
- Year on year: each topic's and theme's share of all applications in Q3 2026, against Q3 2025, at every council we hold. A share is the number in every 10,000 applications. Shares compare across councils and years; raw counts do not.
- Left out of the topic shares: Birmingham's applications from June to September 2026: a validation backlog at the council since June 2026: of 685 reference numbers it issued in September, its register lists 288. The same months a year earlier are left out too, so every comparison covers the same councils.
- Download the data (CSV): every topic and theme, each quarter since 2016.
Sources
- A garden hot tub is usually treated as an outbuilding under permitted development, with exceptions for listed buildings, conservation areas and enclosing structures. interactive.planningportal.co.uk