Tennis court planning trends
The tennis court planning index stands at 106, below its early 2024 peak, and the South East has almost twice the UK share.
Tennis court applications since 2016
Tennis court applications in every 10,000 planning applications, over the 12 months to each month
How this is measuredDown from a 2024 peak
The tennis court planning index stands at 106, just above its 2016 share. It peaked at 120 in the year to March 2024, on 385 applications, and fell to 88 by May 2025. The latest 12 months brought 308 applications.
Highest in the South East
From 2023 to 2025 the South East received 14 tennis court applications in every 10,000, against 7.2 across the UK. London had 4.8 and Scotland, lowest, 2.2. South Downs National Park leads the council table with 127 since 2016.
Q3 2026 against a year earlier
Councils received 82 tennis court applications in Q3 2026: 8.0 in every 10,000 applications, against 8.9 in Q3 2025, a share of all applications 10% lower than a year earlier.
Tennis court applications each quarter
82 in Q3 2026, against 97 a year earlier.
Out of every 10,000 applications
As a share of every application: 8.0 in every 10,000 in Q3 2026, against 8.9 a year earlier.
Where tennis court applications concentrate
By region
Tennis court applications in every 10,000 planning applications, 2023 to 2025
Councils with the most
Applications since 2016
-
South Downs National Park
South East · 40 in every 10,000 127 -
Wiltshire
South West · 19 in every 10,000 107 -
Somerset
South West · 14 in every 10,000 82 -
South Oxfordshire
South East · 32 in every 10,000 75 -
Cotswold
South West · 36 in every 10,000 71 -
Waverley
South East · 32 in every 10,000 71 -
North Yorkshire
Yorkshire and Humber · 9.8 in every 10,000 66 -
Wealden
South East · 24 in every 10,000 59 -
Cheshire East
North West · 15 in every 10,000 57 -
Dorset
South West · 12 in every 10,000 57
Latest tennis court applications
- Tennis Courts Chandos Park Chandos Road Buckingham Buckinghamshire Installation of additional low-profile LED floodlighting to one existing outdoor tennis court within a group of three adjacent courts.
- Dorneys Chequers Lane Eversley Hampshire Removal of the the existing tennis court and erection of a single dwellinghouse
- Chapel Allerton Tennis And Squash Club Wensley Avenue Chapel Allerton Leeds Alterations to 1x existing tennis court converting it into 2x padel courts with canopy and associated landscaping.
- Wragby Town Hall Louth Road Wragby Lincolnshire Planning Permission - Erection of a pavillion and resurfacing and general repairs to existing tennis courts.
- Bush Hill Park Bowls Tennis And Social Club Abbey Road Enfield Six floodlights to existing tennis court.
- Frost Hill Farm Frost Hill Overton Basingstoke Hampshire Construction of a hard surfaced tennis court and an associated change of land use to residential
Questions
How many tennis court planning applications are there in the UK?
Councils have received 4,047 since January 2016, 308 of them in the 12 months to September 2026. Their share peaked in the 12 months to March 2024.
Where are the most tennis courts being proposed?
South Downs National Park, Wiltshire and Somerset have received the most since 2016.
Are tennis court applications rising or falling?
Down from a peak, but steady lately. The share peaked in the year to March 2024 and fell to a low a year later. Since late 2025 the tennis court planning index has held between 105 and 110.
Do padel courts count in these figures?
Only where an application converts an existing tennis court to padel, and those also appear on the padel courts page. Other padel schemes, including those named as padel tennis courts, are counted only there.
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
Applications to turn a tennis court into padel courts are counted here and on the padel courts page. Other padel court applications are counted only on the padel courts page.
Methodology
- What is counted: planning applications to UK councils whose description names tennis courts 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 tennis court 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 tennis court 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.