Retirement living planning trends
Retirement living takes about two thirds of its 2016 share of applications: the retirement living planning index stands at 70, against 142 for care homes.
Retirement living applications since 2016
Retirement living applications in every 10,000 planning applications, over the 12 months to each month
How this is measuredDown since 2019
UK councils received 265 retirement living applications in 2019 and 125 in 2025, while their share fell from 4.7 to 2.9 in every 10,000 applications. The share over 12 months peaked at 5.2 in the year to June 2020.
Highest in the East, South East and North West
From 2023 to 2025, retirement living made up 5.6 in every 10,000 applications in the East of England, 5.1 in the South East and 5.0 in the North West, against 3.5 across the UK. Scotland had 1.2 and London 0.6.
Q3 2026 against a year earlier
Councils received 18 retirement living applications in Q3 2026, too few to compare their share with a year earlier.
Retirement living applications each quarter
18 in Q3 2026, against 28 a year earlier.
Out of every 10,000 applications
As a share of every application: 1.8 in every 10,000 in Q3 2026, against 2.6 a year earlier.
Where retirement living applications concentrate
By region
Retirement living applications in every 10,000 planning applications, 2023 to 2025
Councils with the most
Applications since 2016
-
Cheshire East
North West · 11 in every 10,000 41 -
Cornwall
South West · 4.5 in every 10,000 35 -
Telford and Wrekin
West Midlands · 19 in every 10,000 32 -
Central Bedfordshire
East of England · 11 in every 10,000 31 -
North Yorkshire
Yorkshire and Humber · 4.5 in every 10,000 30 -
Wiltshire
South West · 5.3 in every 10,000 30 - Maidstone and Swale (shared register)
South East · 9.1 in every 10,000 27 -
Reigate and Banstead
South East · 15 in every 10,000 26 -
South Oxfordshire
South East · 11 in every 10,000 26 -
Birmingham
West Midlands · 3.7 in every 10,000 24
Latest retirement living applications
- 35, New Penkridge Road, Cannock, Staffordshire Demolition of the existing bungalow and replacement with one block of 12 retirement living apartments with communal area, parking and supplementary works.
- Land East of Hainault Road, Chigwell Outline Application (all matters reserved except means of access) for housing led mixed use development (12.6 hectares net developed area) comprising: up to 250 Units (50% Affordable) (CLASS C3); commercial (CLASS E [C], [E], [F], [G][I]) development [commercial floorspace/primary healthcare up to ,500M2, day nursery up to 1,000M2, excluding parking and associated land, care/retirement living [CLASS C2] approximately 60 to 70 bed/up to 7,000M2]; New accessible green space (26.42HA) for informal leisure and Biodiversity Net Gain; together with a new all-purpose access from Hainault Road and a Sustainable Urban Drainage System (SuDS) (AMENDED DESCRIPTION)
- Horsforth Clinic Church Lane Horsforth Leeds Redevelopment for 42 retirement living apartments including communal facilities, access, car parking and landscaping
- Land East Of Drummore House Wallyford Toll Wallyford East Lothian Planning permission in principle for the erection of a care home, 10 associated extra care apartments (Class 8), car parking, landscaping, and associated works
- Land West Of Gandys Lane Boughton Monchelsea Kent Erection of 6 Retirement Bungalows, detached garages, creation of access and internal road, new section of footway along Gandy's Lane.
- Clifton Hill Sports Centre Clifton Hill Exeter Redevelopment of the site for affordable Extra Care Accommodation (Use Class C2) with associated ancillary facilities, landscaping, parking, new access, and associated works.
Questions
How many retirement living planning applications are there in the UK?
Councils have received 2,294 since January 2016, 125 of them in the 12 months to September 2026. Their share peaked in the 12 months to June 2020.
Which councils receive the most retirement living applications?
Cheshire East, Cornwall and Telford and Wrekin have received the most since 2016.
Is enough retirement housing being built?
The Older People's Housing Taskforce, reporting in November 2024, put delivery at 5,000 to 7,000 later living homes a year in England and cited the Mayhew Review's estimate that 50,000 a year are needed.
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
Retirement housing has no use class of its own: each council decides whether a scheme falls in class C2 or class C3.
Methodology
- What is counted: planning applications to UK councils whose description names retirement living 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 retirement living 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 retirement living 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
- Planning practice guidance leaves each local planning authority to decide which use class an older people's housing development falls into. gov.uk
- The Older People's Housing Taskforce put delivery at 5,000 to 7,000 later living homes a year and cited the Mayhew Review's estimate that 50,000 a year are needed. gov.uk