New and replacement shopfront planning trends
Councils received 1,222 applications for new and replacement shopfronts in the 12 months to September 2026, against 2,776 in 2016.
New and replacement shopfront applications since 2016
New and replacement shopfront applications in every 10,000 planning applications, over the 12 months to each month
How this is measuredDown by about two fifths to 2020, level since
New and replacement shopfronts made up 44 in every 10,000 applications in 2016 and 26 in 2020. The share has stayed between 25 and 29 each year since, while the count went from 1,410 to 1,302 in 2025.
A measure of investment
Each application here puts in or replaces a frontage, so the count follows spending on shops rather than the number of shops. The shopfront planning index stands at 64.
Highest in the North East and London
From 2023 to 2025, the North East had 60 shopfront applications in every 10,000 and London 47, against 29 across the UK. Scotland had 10, the lowest.
Q3 2026 against a year earlier
Councils received 286 new and replacement shopfront applications in Q3 2026: 28 in every 10,000 applications, against 29 in Q3 2025, a share of all applications 5% lower than a year earlier.
New and replacement shopfront applications each quarter
286 in Q3 2026, against 320 a year earlier.
Out of every 10,000 applications
As a share of every application: 28 in every 10,000 in Q3 2026, against 29 a year earlier.
Where new and replacement shopfront applications concentrate
By region
New and replacement shopfront applications in every 10,000 planning applications, 2023 to 2025
Councils with the most
Applications since 2016
-
Westminster
London · 218 in every 10,000 1,313 -
Birmingham
West Midlands · 69 in every 10,000 441 -
Wandsworth
London · 93 in every 10,000 338 -
Camden
London · 102 in every 10,000 299 -
Leeds
Yorkshire and Humber · 49 in every 10,000 288 -
Manchester
North West · 95 in every 10,000 257 -
Liverpool
North West · 88 in every 10,000 240 -
City of Bradford
Yorkshire and Humber · 58 in every 10,000 232 -
Lambeth
London · 76 in every 10,000 224 -
Islington
London · 101 in every 10,000 221
Latest new and replacement shopfront applications
- 142-150 Kilburn High Road London Installation of replacement shopfront at ground floor together with enlargement and replacement of window openings at 1st floor (part) to front elevation.
- T.K.maxx 34 Crowtree Road Sunderland Installation of ventilation louvres and kitchen extract system, new shopfront and fire exit door to side elevation and LED architectural lighting to existing glazed staircase tower.
- 202B Kensington High Street, London Replacement of shopfront with new to match the design of neighbouring units
- 3 To 5 Main Street Barrhead East Renfrewshire Change of use of public house to hot food takeaway and retail unit on the ground floor and studio/office on the lower ground floor with the installation of new shopfronts at ground floor level and installation of a flue at the rear (corrected description)
- 2 Belmont Parade, Green Lane, Chislehurst Change of use of ground floor from retail (Class E(a)) to restaurant (Class E (b)) with ground floor rear extension and ventilation ductwork at rear) and Replacement shopfront and alterations including new retractable canopy, wooden railings with planters at front of premises to provide external seating area.
- 2 The Square Broad Street Staple Hill South Gloucestershire Installation of replacement shopfront.
Questions
How many shopfront planning applications are there in the UK?
Councils have received 18,680 since January 2016, 1,222 of them in the 12 months to September 2026. Their share peaked in the 12 months to December 2016.
Which councils receive the most shopfront applications?
Westminster, Birmingham and Wandsworth have received the most since 2016.
Does a new shopfront need planning permission?
Usually. Works that materially affect the outside of a building are development under section 55 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, so a new or different shopfront needs permission. A like-for-like repair usually does not.
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 new and replacement shopfronts, on their own or with other works such as a change of use. Shutters, signs, repairs and other works to a shopfront that stays are left out.
Methodology
- What is counted: planning applications to UK councils whose description names new and replacement shopfronts 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 new and replacement shopfront 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 new and replacement shopfront 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
- Section 55(2)(a) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990: works that do not materially affect the external appearance of a building are not development. legislation.gov.uk