Tanning salon planning trends
Councils received 32 applications to open or close a tanning salon in the 12 months to September 2026, against 84 in 2016.
Tanning salon applications since 2016
Tanning salon applications in every 10,000 planning applications, over the 12 months to each month
How this is measuredUnder half the 2016 count
Tanning salon applications fell from 84 in 2016 to 27 in 2025. Their share went from 1.3 in every 10,000 applications to 0.6. The tanning salon planning index stands at 55.
Lower than three years ago
Over 12 months the count is 22% down on three years earlier, and the share of all applications 10% lower.
Q3 2026 against a year earlier
Councils received 5 tanning salon applications in Q3 2026, too few to compare their share with a year earlier.
Tanning salon applications each quarter
5 in Q3 2026, against 5 a year earlier.
Out of every 10,000 applications
As a share of every application: 0.5 in every 10,000 in Q3 2026, against 0.5 a year earlier.
Where tanning salon applications concentrate
Councils with the most
Applications since 2016
-
Birmingham
West Midlands · 2.5 in every 10,000 16 -
City and County of Swansea
Wales · 7.9 in every 10,000 14 -
Durham
North East · 4.7 in every 10,000 13 -
Leeds
Yorkshire and Humber · 2.0 in every 10,000 12 -
Bridgend
Wales · 12 in every 10,000 10 -
Glasgow
Scotland · 3.7 in every 10,000 10 -
East Riding of Yorkshire
Yorkshire and Humber · 3.0 in every 10,000 9 -
Liverpool
North West · 3.3 in every 10,000 9 -
Telford and Wrekin
West Midlands · 5.4 in every 10,000 9 -
City of Cardiff
Wales · 3.5 in every 10,000 8
Latest tanning salon applications
- 5 Moorside Road Heaton Mersey Stockport Alterations to ground floor and basement and change of use to tanning salon. Alterations to first floor flat including extension into attic space and formation of new rear dormer.
- Sunquest 6 - 8 Pontygwindy Road Caerphilly Change the use of former sun bed shop to retail (Use Class A1), including a new aluminium shop front including roller shutters
- Unit 3 Deanfield Drive Clitheroe Retrospective change of use of part of the existing premises to a tanning salon and tattoo studio, together with associated internal alterations.
- Store 61 Market Place Inverurie Aberdeenshire Change of Use from Warehouse Building (Class 6) to Tanning Salon (Class 1A)
- Ground Floor 37 Whitchurch Road Gabalfa Cardiff Change of use from tanning salon to proffesional advice/solicitor serivces
- 20A Front Street Annfield Plain Stanley Change of use of ground floor from hot food takeaway (Sui Generis) to tanning salon (Use Class E), and conversion of upper floors to a House in Multiple Occupation (HMO) (Use Class C4) with 5 bedrooms
Questions
How many tanning salon planning applications are there in the UK?
Councils have received 637 since January 2016, 32 of them in the 12 months to September 2026. Their share peaked in the 12 months to March 2020.
Which councils receive the most tanning salon applications?
Birmingham, City and County of Swansea and Durham have received the most since 2016.
Who can use a sunbed?
In England and Wales, the Sunbeds (Regulation) Act 2010 makes it an offence for a sunbed business to let anyone under 18 use a sunbed on its premises.
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 tanning and sunbed salons opened, and salons changed to another use or demolished. Works at a salon that keeps trading, and flexible or alternative uses, are left out.
Methodology
- What is counted: planning applications to UK councils whose description names tanning salons 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 tanning salon 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 tanning salon 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 Sunbeds (Regulation) Act 2010 requires a sunbed business in England and Wales to ensure that no person under 18 uses a sunbed on its premises. legislation.gov.uk