Restaurant and café planning trends
Councils received 1,176 restaurant and café applications in the year to September 2026. Much of the fall since 2016 is a change in the law.
Restaurant and café applications since 2016
Restaurant and café applications in every 10,000 planning applications, over the 12 months to each month
How this is measuredCafés joined use class E in 2020
Since 1 September 2020, restaurants and cafés in England have shared use class E with shops. A move within one class needs no application, so a café can open in a former shop without one. Applications fell from 2,823 in 2019 to 1,468 in 2022.
Higher where the law did not change
From 2023 to 2025, Wales had 56 restaurant and café applications in every 10,000, Scotland 54 and Northern Ireland 46, against 25 across the UK. All three keep cafés and restaurants apart from shops in their use classes.
Over three years, a smaller count but a bigger share
Over 12 months the count is 10% down on three years earlier, while the share of all applications is 4% higher. The restaurant and café planning index stands at 54.
Q3 2026 against a year earlier
Councils received 258 restaurant and café applications in Q3 2026: 25 in every 10,000 applications, against 26 in Q3 2025, a share of all applications 4% lower than a year earlier.
Restaurant and café applications each quarter
258 in Q3 2026, against 285 a year earlier.
Out of every 10,000 applications
As a share of every application: 25 in every 10,000 in Q3 2026, against 26 a year earlier.
Where restaurant and café applications concentrate
By region
Restaurant and café applications in every 10,000 planning applications, 2023 to 2025
Councils with the most
Applications since 2016
-
Birmingham
West Midlands · 103 in every 10,000 662 -
Glasgow
Scotland · 154 in every 10,000 411 -
Leeds
Yorkshire and Humber · 66 in every 10,000 392 -
City of Edinburgh
Scotland · 72 in every 10,000 356 -
Westminster
London · 56 in every 10,000 337 -
City of Bradford
Yorkshire and Humber · 73 in every 10,000 293 -
Manchester
North West · 109 in every 10,000 293 -
City of Cardiff
Wales · 119 in every 10,000 274 -
Liverpool
North West · 100 in every 10,000 273 -
Belfast
Northern Ireland · 136 in every 10,000 231
Latest restaurant and café applications
- 445 Great Western Road Glasgow Use of hot food takeaway (Sui Generis) as cafe/hot food takeaway (Class 3/Sui Generis)
- 9 Market Street Brighton Certificate of lawfulness for proposed change of use from hair salon (E(c)(iii)) to restaurant (E(b)).
- 90 Cecil Road Queens Park Northampton Proposed change of use from car show room and garage/store to coffee shop with bin and cycle storage, including fenestration changes. Proposed first floor construction over to create 1 bedroomed flat. Proposed railings to front to create outdoor seating area
- The Corn Kist Restaurant Back Dykes Abernethy Perth Use of hotel as restaurant (existing)
- Courtney Pianos 43 Botley Road Oxford Oxfordshire Change of use from Piano shop & workshop to charity shop and cafe (Use Class (E)). Insertion of 2no. rooflights in association with loft conversion. Installation of planters to front elevation. Formation of front patio area. Alterations to shop front and fenestrations to side elevation.
- The Stone Barn Fremington Quay Fremington Barnstaple Devon Extension to & change of use of barn to provide a cafe/restaurant with associated works
Questions
How many restaurant and café planning applications are there in the UK?
Councils have received 22,311 since January 2016, 1,176 of them in the 12 months to September 2026. Their share peaked in the 12 months to March 2018.
Which councils receive the most restaurant and café applications?
Birmingham, Glasgow and Leeds have received the most since 2016.
Does opening a café in a former shop need planning permission?
In England, usually not. Since 1 September 2020 shops, cafés and restaurants have shared use class E, and a change within one use class is not development. Hot food takeaways and pubs sit outside use class E and still need 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 count restaurant and café openings: a change of use to one, a new building or a use certificate. In England a café opening in a former shop has needed no application since 1 September 2020, so most such openings are not here.
Methodology
- What is counted: planning applications to UK councils whose description names restaurants and cafés 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 restaurant and café 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 restaurants and café 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 Use Classes (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2020 put restaurants and cafés in Class E (the use class covering shops, cafes, offices, gyms and similar town-centre uses)(b) from 1 September 2020. legislation.gov.uk
- Section 55(2)(f) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990: a change of use within the same use class is not development. legislation.gov.uk
- In Scotland, food and drink is Class 3 of the Use Classes (Scotland) Order 1997, apart from shops in Class 1A. legislation.gov.uk