Orangery planning trends
Orangery applications have more than halved since 2021. The orangery planning index stands at 71: a share of applications 29% below 2016.
Orangery applications since 2016
Orangery applications in every 10,000 planning applications, over the 12 months to each month
How this is measuredA 2021 high, then a fall
Orangeries made up 25 to 27 in every 10,000 applications from 2016 to 2020, and 28 in 2021. The share fell to 20 by 2024 and held in 2025. The orangery planning index peaked at 107 in the 12 months to June 2021.
South East highest, London and Northern Ireland lowest
From 2023 to 2025, orangeries made up 35 in every 10,000 applications in the South East and 32 in the North East, against 20 across the UK. London and Northern Ireland were lowest, on 4.9 each. Wiltshire leads all councils, with 343 since 2016.
Q3 2026 against a year earlier
Councils received 172 orangery applications in Q3 2026: 17 in every 10,000 applications, against 21 in Q3 2025, a share of all applications 21% lower than a year earlier.
Orangery applications each quarter
172 in Q3 2026, against 233 a year earlier.
Out of every 10,000 applications
As a share of every application: 17 in every 10,000 in Q3 2026, against 21 a year earlier.
Where orangery applications concentrate
By region
Orangery applications in every 10,000 planning applications, 2023 to 2025
Councils with the most
Applications since 2016
-
Wiltshire
South West · 61 in every 10,000 343 -
North Yorkshire
Yorkshire and Humber · 44 in every 10,000 294 -
Cheshire East
North West · 72 in every 10,000 273 -
South Downs National Park
South East · 73 in every 10,000 232 -
South Oxfordshire
South East · 80 in every 10,000 188 -
Wealden
South East · 69 in every 10,000 169 -
Stratford-on-Avon
West Midlands · 65 in every 10,000 168 -
Dorset
South West · 34 in every 10,000 165 -
Northumberland
North East · 59 in every 10,000 159 -
Cheshire West and Chester
North West · 48 in every 10,000 157
Latest orangery applications
- Fossdale Lodge, Simonstone, Hawes Householder planning permission for erection of timber framed orangery to rear elevation, together with repositioning of window
- Fossdale Lodge, Simonstone, Hawes Listed building consent for erection of timber framed orangery to rear elevation, together with repositioning of window
- Quinta The Avenue Sherborne Erect two storey rear and side extensions, a single storey orangery and alterations to the existing dwelling.
- The Orsett Fruit Farm Orsett Road Horndon On The Hill Essex Erection of a single-storey rear orangery with basement accommodation accessed internally from the orangery, together with the construction of a new entrance porch to the front elevation of the existing dwelling.
- The Orangery Knolle Park, L25 To erect new dwellinghouse using remnants of historic Orangery with associated works including creation of 1no. parking space in the curtilage of a listed building
- Belle Vue Farm Lancaster Road Out Rawcliffe Lancashire Erection of orangery to rear of property following demolition of rear porch and replacement detached garage/office
Questions
How many orangery planning applications are there in the UK?
Councils have received 14,117 since January 2016, 831 of them in the 12 months to September 2026. Their share peaked in the 12 months to June 2021.
Which councils get the most orangery applications?
Wiltshire, North Yorkshire and Cheshire East have received the most since 2016.
Are orangery applications rising or falling?
Falling. Councils received 831 in the 12 months to September 2026, against 1,807 in 2021. Orangeries' share of all applications is 5% lower than three years earlier, and the orangery planning index stands at 71: 29% below their 2016 share.
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
In England a large rear extension can go through prior approval instead of a planning application. That permitted development route was made permanent in 2019.
Methodology
- What is counted: planning applications to UK councils whose description names orangeries 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 orangery 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 orangery 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
- The Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) (Amendment) (No. 2) Order 2019 made the larger rear extension right under prior approval permanent from 25 May 2019 legislation.gov.uk