Sport and leisure
The sport and leisure planning index stands at 199, about twice its 2016 share and the highest since 2016, led by padel courts.
199Planning index (2016 = 100)About twice its 2016 share
up 8%Change in shareQ3 2026 against Q3 2025
928Applications, Q3 2026every council we hold
3,919Applications, past 12 monthsall councils, October 2025 to September 2026
In brief
- The theme drew 928 applications in Q3 2026, a share of all applications 8% higher than a year earlier.
- Over 12 months, gyms drew 2,602 applications and padel courts 1,033. Padel's share is 9 times three years earlier; gyms' is 12% higher.
- Tennis and squash courts went the other way: 308 and 16 applications in 12 months, shares 9% and 40% below three years earlier.
Q3 2026 against a year earlier
By topic
| Topic | Applications | Share, Q3 2025 | Share, Q3 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gyms | 618 | 57 | 60 | up 6% |
| Padel courts | 235 | 18 | 23 | up 28% |
| Tennis courts | 82 | 8.9 | 8.0 | down 10% |
| Indoor golf | 40 | 2.3 | 3.9 | Under 40 |
| Pickleball | 14 | 1.4 | 1.4 | Under 40 |
| Squash courts | 4 | 0.8 | 0.4 | Under 40 |
Applications in Q3 2026. Share is the number in every 10,000 applications.
Out of every 10,000 applications
All 6 topics together: 90 in every 10,000 applications in Q3 2026, against 84 a year earlier.
Topics in this theme
Gyms
2,602 applications in the past year
up 57% in share since 2016
Planning index 157
Padel courts
1,033 applications in the past year
up 9 times in share since 2023
Tennis courts
308 applications in the past year
up 6% in share since 2016
Planning index 106
Indoor golf
101 applications in the past year
up 5 times in share since 2023
Pickleball
53 applications in the past year
up 9 times in share since 2023
Squash courts
16 applications in the past year
down 41% in share since 2016
Planning index 59
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
- The theme's planning index: the applications for its 6 topics over the previous 12 months, as a share of all applications, with the 2016 share set at 100.
- Each application counts once in a theme, even when it names two of the theme's topics, so the topics can add up to more than the theme.
- Topics: each counts applications whose description names it, or a close variant of the words. Each topic's matches were checked one by one, by reading its 200 most recent applications and 20 from every year since 2016. Topics count planning applications, not completed schemes. The largest energy and infrastructure projects are consented nationally rather than by councils, so they sit outside these counts.
- 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.
- 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.
- Source: the planning registers of every UK council, January 2016 to September 2026, read on 9 November 2026.