Supported accommodation planning trends
Supported accommodation takes 4.7 times its 2016 share of planning applications, the highest since 2016 and 74% above three years earlier.
Supported accommodation applications since 2016
Supported accommodation applications in every 10,000 planning applications, over the 12 months to each month
How this is measuredThe highest share since 2016
Councils received 336 supported accommodation applications in 2023, 428 in 2024 and 475 in 2025. The supported accommodation planning index stands at 466 in September 2026, the highest since 2016: 4.7 times its 2016 share.
London and two boroughs lead
From 2023 to 2025 London received 15 supported accommodation applications in every 10,000, against 8.8 across the UK, and Scotland 1.1. Havering has received 155 since 2016 and Redbridge 111, the two highest council totals.
Q3 2026 against a year earlier
Councils received 140 supported accommodation applications in Q3 2026: 14 in every 10,000 applications, against 11 in Q3 2025, a share of all applications 26% higher than a year earlier.
Supported accommodation applications each quarter
140 in Q3 2026, against 118 a year earlier.
Out of every 10,000 applications
As a share of every application: 14 in every 10,000 in Q3 2026, against 11 a year earlier.
Where supported accommodation applications concentrate
By region
Supported accommodation applications in every 10,000 planning applications, 2023 to 2025
Councils with the most
Applications since 2016
-
Havering
London · 52 in every 10,000 155 -
Redbridge
London · 27 in every 10,000 111 -
Birmingham
West Midlands · 14 in every 10,000 88 -
Croydon
London · 19 in every 10,000 69 -
Enfield
London · 19 in every 10,000 64 -
Liverpool
North West · 23 in every 10,000 63 -
West Northamptonshire
East Midlands · 15 in every 10,000 53 -
Royal Borough of Greenwich
London · 17 in every 10,000 44 -
Nottingham
East Midlands · 28 in every 10,000 44 -
Bexley
London · 18 in every 10,000 43
Latest supported accommodation applications
- 6 Westlands Avenue Newcastle Staffordshire C3 dwelling to C2 supported housing
- 89A Uplands Avenue Rowley Regis Proposed change of use from residential dwelling (Use Class C3) to supported living for 1 No. adult (Use Class C2).
- 104, Castleton Road, Ilford Change of use from a single dwelling house (C3(a)) into Supported Living Accommodation (C3(b)) for up to four adults. (Summary).
- The White House 29 Beverley Road Driffield East Riding Of Yorkshire Change of use from residential care home to 7 self-contained supported living units, alterations from door to window on side elevation and internal alterations
- Station House, Forest Road, Ilford Change of use from a dwelling house (C3(a)) into Supported Living Accommodation (C3(b)) for 3 young people (aged 18-25 years) with a live-in support staff member. (Summary).
- 9 Howden Close London Lawful Development Certificate (Proposed) for the Change of Use from Dwellinghouse (Class C3) to Supported Accommodation (Class C2) for a maximum of 3 occupants with 2 support staff.
Questions
How many supported accommodation planning applications are there in the UK?
Councils have received 3,250 since January 2016, 506 of them in the 12 months to September 2026. Their share of all applications is the highest since 2016.
Which councils receive the most supported accommodation applications?
Havering, Redbridge and Birmingham have received the most since 2016.
Does supported housing have its own planning use class?
Not yet. The Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act 2023 requires the government to consider a use class of its own once licensing is running. Licensing of supported exempt accommodation in England depends on regulations, which are out for consultation.
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
Whether a scheme needs permission depends on how the council classifies its use, so many applications seek a lawful development certificate. One application can cover a single home or several units.
Methodology
- What is counted: planning applications to UK councils whose description names supported accommodation 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 supported accommodation 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 supported accommodation 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 Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act 2023 provides for national supported housing standards, published by the Secretary of State, and a licensing regime for supported exempt accommodation made by regulations; section 8 requires the government to consider a use class for it. legislation.gov.uk