Indoor golf planning trends
Indoor golf applications reached 101 in the 12 months to September 2026, five times their share of three years earlier and the highest since 2016.
Indoor golf applications since 2016
Indoor golf applications in every 10,000 planning applications, over the 12 months to each month
How this is measuredFrom about 30 a year to 101
Councils received between 25 and 32 indoor golf applications a year from 2020 to 2023, then 51 in 2024 and 61 in 2025. The first nine months of 2026 brought 81, already more than all of 2025.
Q3 2026 against a year earlier
Councils received 40 indoor golf applications in Q3 2026, too few to compare their share with a year earlier.
Indoor golf applications each quarter
40 in Q3 2026, against 25 a year earlier.
Out of every 10,000 applications
As a share of every application: 3.9 in every 10,000 in Q3 2026, against 2.3 a year earlier.
Where indoor golf applications concentrate
Councils with the most
Applications since 2016
-
St Albans
East of England · 3.7 in every 10,000 10 -
City of Bradford
Yorkshire and Humber · 1.7 in every 10,000 7 -
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole
South West · 1.7 in every 10,000 6 -
Colchester
East of England · 2.9 in every 10,000 5 -
City of Edinburgh
Scotland · 1.0 in every 10,000 5 -
Leeds
Yorkshire and Humber · 0.8 in every 10,000 5 -
Monmouthshire
Wales · 4.9 in every 10,000 5 -
Newcastle
North East · 3.4 in every 10,000 5 -
Stirling
Scotland · 5.9 in every 10,000 5 -
Wiltshire
South West · 0.9 in every 10,000 5
Latest indoor golf applications
- Land At Corner Of Luton Road And Thrales End Lane Harpenden Hertfordshire Prior Approval of change of use from agricultural building to flexible commercial use: Leisure facility to include two padel courts, private gym and golf simulator.
- Unit 3 Northampton Court Beacon Business Park Beacon Way Stafford Staffordshire Change of use to Class E for use as social leisure destination The unit will be used for the establishment of a golf simulation business, with interactive, digital darts and a limited, controlled (patrons only) licensed bar. Standard illuminated signage will be required in keeping with neighbouring businesses (Tool Station and National Windscreens). The golf simulation business will be managed (and part owned) by a fully qualified, ex-tour PGA golf professional with over 30 successful years in the golf coaching and leisure retail services industry.
- 16 Narberth Crescent Llanyravon Cwmbran Torfaen Golf simulator room in rear garden of property.
- 122A Muirhall Road Larbert Alterations and Change of Use from Car Showroom (Sui Generis) to Indoor Golf Simulator Range
- The Old Printworks 4a and 6a Back York Street Clitheroe Proposed partial demolition of existing building and change of use from former printing works (Class B1(c)) to form 2 no. Golf Simulator Units (Class E(d)) with associated external works.
- 9 Babington Lane Derby Change of use from an indoor golf centre with bar and restaurant facilities (Use Class E(b)(d)) to a college (Class F1) and construction of two additional floors at mezzanine level
Questions
How many indoor golf planning applications are there in the UK?
Councils have received 366 since January 2016, 101 of them in the 12 months to September 2026. Their share of all applications is the highest since 2016.
Which councils receive the most indoor golf applications?
St Albans, City of Bradford and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole have received the most since 2016.
Are indoor golf planning applications rising?
Yes. Councils received 101 in the 12 months to September 2026, and the indoor golf share of applications is five times that of three years earlier, the highest since 2016.
Is golf itself growing?
Sporting Insights, which tracks rounds played for the golf industry, reported that 2025 set a record for rounds in Great Britain, up 14% on 2024, and named simulator venues among new ways into the game.
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
Since September 2020, moving indoor golf into a shop, café or office unit in England often needs no change-of-use application, as all sit in Class E (the use class covering shops, cafes, offices, gyms and similar town-centre uses).
Methodology
- What is counted: planning applications to UK councils whose description names indoor golf 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 indoor golf 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. This topic has no planning index: councils received fewer than 20 in 2016, too few to measure change against.
- 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
- SI 2020/757 created Class E in England from 1 September 2020, covering indoor sport, recreation or fitness alongside shops, cafés and offices. legislation.gov.uk
- Sporting Insights reported in February 2026 that 2025 set a record for rounds played in Great Britain, up 14% on 2024, citing simulator venues as new entry points. sportinginsights.com