Social club planning trends
The social club planning index stands at 74, about three quarters of its 2016 share, though the share is 34% above three years earlier.
Social club applications since 2016
Social club applications in every 10,000 planning applications, over the 12 months to each month
How this is measuredUp from 2021
Councils received 103 social club applications in the 12 months to September 2026, against 90 in the year to August 2023. The social club planning index was highest in 2016, stood at 48 in the 12 months to November 2021 and is now 74.
Q3 2026 against a year earlier
Councils received 19 social club applications in Q3 2026, too few to compare their share with a year earlier.
Social club applications each quarter
19 in Q3 2026, against 26 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 2.4 a year earlier.
Where social club applications concentrate
Councils with the most
Applications since 2016
-
Birmingham
West Midlands · 4.7 in every 10,000 30 -
Leeds
Yorkshire and Humber · 5.1 in every 10,000 30 -
Durham
North East · 8.0 in every 10,000 22 -
City of Bradford
Yorkshire and Humber · 5.0 in every 10,000 20 -
Hackney
London · 6.9 in every 10,000 16 -
Sheffield
Yorkshire and Humber · 5.6 in every 10,000 16 -
Sunderland
North East · 17 in every 10,000 16 -
North Yorkshire
Yorkshire and Humber · 2.2 in every 10,000 15 -
Derby
East Midlands · 10 in every 10,000 14 -
City of Doncaster
Yorkshire and Humber · 6.6 in every 10,000 13
Latest social club applications
- Basement And Ground, 113 Holloway Road, London Change of use of the ground floor and basement from a former social club (Use Class Sui Generis) to a convenience store (Use Class Class E(a) together with alterations to the front elevation including the installation of a new glazed shopfront, entrance doors, and the installation of a new individual lit lettering fascia sign with associated external alterations (Advertisement Consent ref: P2026/2706/ADV also submitted)
- The Victoria Club 426 Abergele Road Old Colwyn Colwyn Bay Change of use from a social club (D2 use class) into five residential apartments (C3 use class) to be provided as 100% affordable units, along with associated works for external alterations, parking provision, accessible pedestrian access and landscaping works.
- Old Hunstanton Village Hall 36 Old Hunstanton Road Old Hunstanton Hunstanton Norfolk Extension and Alterations to Social Club including partial demolition.
- Sports Ground Catwick Lane Brandesburton East Riding Of Yorkshire Erection of a sports pavilion/social club, construction of a Multi-Use Games Area (MUGA) with associated perimeter fencing and floodlighting, remodelling and extension of existing car parking, erection of cycle shelter and bin store, relocation of the pétanque club, removal of existing portacabins and floodlighting, together with all associated works (Resubmission of 25/00665/PLF)
- Unit 4 Blackwood Court North Hykeham Lincoln Lincolnshire Change of use, from class usage B1/B2/B8 use to Sui Generis for membership-based DIY automotive workshop and associated members social club including internal alterations and fit-out.
- 357 Alexandra Road Gateshead Renewal of Planning Permission DC/24/01003/COU on a permanent basis for change of use from a social club (sui generis) to a childcare day centre (Use Class E)
Questions
How many social club planning applications are there in the UK?
Councils have received 1,273 since January 2016, 103 of them in the 12 months to September 2026. Their share peaked in the 12 months to December 2016.
Which councils receive the most social club applications?
Birmingham, Leeds and Durham have received the most since 2016.
Are social club planning applications rising?
As a share of all applications, yes: the share in the 12 months to September 2026 is 34% above three years earlier. The social club planning index, at 74, remains below its 2016 level of 100.
Where are social club applications most concentrated?
The North East, with 10 in every 10,000 applications from 2023 to 2025, against 2.2 across the UK. Of the councils with the most, Durham has the highest share of its own applications since 2016, 8.0 in every 10,000.
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
The count includes conversions, extensions and demolitions of existing clubs, so a rise can mark clubs closing as well as clubs opening.
Methodology
- What is counted: planning applications to UK councils whose description names social clubs 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 social club 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 social club 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.