Post office planning trends
The post office planning index stands at 43, about two fifths of the 2016 share, and the share is 5% above three years earlier.
Post office applications since 2016
Post office applications in every 10,000 planning applications, over the 12 months to each month
How this is measuredFrom 259 a year to 77
Councils received 259 post office applications in 2016, 147 in 2019 and 81 in 2025. Their share peaked in 2016, at 4.1 in every 10,000 applications. It was 1.8 in the 12 months to September 2026, against 1.7 three years earlier.
Q3 2026 against a year earlier
Councils received 21 post office applications in Q3 2026, too few to compare their share with a year earlier.
Post office applications each quarter
21 in Q3 2026, against 14 a year earlier.
Out of every 10,000 applications
As a share of every application: 2.0 in every 10,000 in Q3 2026, against 1.3 a year earlier.
Where post office applications concentrate
Councils with the most
Applications since 2016
-
Cornwall
South West · 5.0 in every 10,000 39 -
Somerset
South West · 5.4 in every 10,000 31 -
West Northamptonshire
East Midlands · 7.9 in every 10,000 28 -
North Yorkshire
Yorkshire and Humber · 3.4 in every 10,000 23 -
Dorset
South West · 4.1 in every 10,000 20 -
Wiltshire
South West · 3.3 in every 10,000 19 -
Durham
North East · 6.5 in every 10,000 18 -
East Riding of Yorkshire
Yorkshire and Humber · 5.4 in every 10,000 16 -
Leeds
Yorkshire and Humber · 2.7 in every 10,000 16 -
City of Bradford
Yorkshire and Humber · 3.7 in every 10,000 15
Latest post office applications
- 2 Main Street, Seskinore Proposed conversion of existing dwelling and former post office to 2 no. dwellings
- Shrub End Post Office, 192 Shrub End Road, Colchester Prior approval notification under Part 3, Class MA of the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015,as amended for change of use of the former vacant Post Office (Use Class E) to residential use (Use Class C3), reinst
- 90 Colinton Mains Drive Edinburgh Class 1 Licenced convenience shop and post office.
- 147-149 Penygroes Road, Blaenau, Ammanford Change of use from post office/shop to form part of adjoining residential dwelling, including internal alterations
- Post Office Stoke Climsland Callington Cornwall Change of use of the shop/Post Office to dwelling.
- Post Office Stoke Climsland Callington Cornwall Listed building consent for the change of use of the shop/Post Office to dwelling.
Questions
How many post office planning applications are there in the UK?
Councils have received 1,457 since January 2016, 77 of them in the 12 months to September 2026. Their share peaked in the 12 months to December 2016.
Where are the most post office applications made?
Cornwall, Somerset and West Northamptonshire have received the most since 2016.
Why are there fewer post office applications than in 2016?
Councils received 259 in 2016 and 81 in 2025. The fall began before 1 September 2020, when England moved shops into Class E (the use class covering shops, cafes, offices, gyms and similar town-centre uses). Since then, a change between uses within Class E needs no planning permission.
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
These figures include conversions of former post offices as well as new ones. Since 1 September 2020, English shops have sat in Class E, and a change within a use class needs no planning permission.
Methodology
- What is counted: planning applications to UK councils whose description names post offices 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 post office 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 post office 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
- Class E, in force in England from 1 September 2020, absorbed the former shops class. legislation.gov.uk
- The Use Classes Order 1987 named a post office within Class A1 shops, and that part was revoked in England on 1 September 2020. legislation.gov.uk
- A change from one use to another within the same use class is not development and needs no planning permission. gov.uk