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How often does your council say yes?

Householder planning decisions for every council we serve, 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026, from the government's own statistics. Approval rate, speed, and how each changed on the year before. Free to reuse with a link.

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England approvals
91%
London approvals
86%
Councils
46
Decisions counted
32,021
01Headline

What the year to June 2026 tells a homeowner

Householder applications are the ones this practice prepares: extensions, lofts, outbuildings and alterations to a house. National and London figures are for every planning authority in each area; the extremes are from the councils we serve.

England

91%

of 145,609 householder decisions were approvals. +1.0 pts on the previous year.

London

86%

across all London planning authorities, 23,973 decisions. +2.1 pts on the year.

Most likely to approve

98%

Hammersmith and Fulham, 506 decisions.

Least likely to approve

67%

Barking and Dagenham, 388 decisions.

Of the 46 councils we serve, 11 approved a higher share of householder applications than England as a whole and 35 a lower share. The gap between the most and least permissive council is 31 percentage points, which is a bigger difference than any change in the rules over the same period. Where you live shapes your odds more than what you build.

The largest rise on the year was in Hounslow, up 10.4 points to 78.5%. The largest fall was in Dartford, down 10.7 points to 76.4%.

Speed is a separate question. Barking and Dagenham issued 100% of its householder decisions inside the statutory eight weeks; Camden managed 61%. A council that approves generously but decides slowly still costs you a summer.

02Approval rate

Share of householder decisions granted, by council

1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026. Bars start at 50%; the vertical rules mark England and London. Hover or focus a council for its numbers and its change on the year. Every value is in the table below.

  1. Hammersmith and Fulham97.8%
  2. Southwark94.8%
  3. Bexley94.6%
  4. Broxbourne
  5. Kensington and Chelsea
  6. Reigate and Banstead
  7. Merton
  8. Tower Hamlets
  9. Islington
  10. Wandsworth
  11. Sutton
  12. Haringey
  13. Sevenoaks
  14. Hemel Hempstead
  15. Hillingdon
  16. Lewisham
  17. Camden
  18. Woking
  19. St Albans
  20. Ealing
  21. Epsom and Ewell
  22. Newham
  23. Brent
  24. Croydon
  25. Guildford
  26. Havering
  27. Brentwood
  28. Hackney
  29. Enfield
  30. Lambeth
  31. Richmond upon Thames
  32. Kingston upon Thames
  33. Redbridge
  34. Westminster
  35. Harrow
  36. Waltham Forest
  37. Slough
  38. Barnet
  39. Watford
  40. Bromley
  41. Hounslow
  42. Greenwich
  43. Epping Forest
  44. Windsor and Maidenhead76.5%
  45. Dartford76.4%
  46. Barking and Dagenham66.5%
Householder planning applications granted as a share of decisions (granted plus refused), 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026. Source: MHCLG, District planning application statistics (PS2). Withdrawn applications are not decisions and are excluded.
03Speed

Share of decisions issued within eight weeks, by council

The statutory period for a householder application is eight weeks from validation. This is the share each council met without an agreed extension of time. Councils that lean on extensions score lower here even when the eventual answer is yes.

  1. Barking and Dagenham100%
  2. Bexley99.6%
  3. Richmond upon Thames98.7%
  4. Havering
  5. Southwark
  6. Brent
  7. Islington
  8. Hounslow
  9. Dartford
  10. Redbridge
  11. Ealing
  12. Epping Forest
  13. Windsor and Maidenhead
  14. Reigate and Banstead
  15. Epsom and Ewell
  16. Newham
  17. Croydon
  18. Barnet
  19. Lewisham
  20. Sutton
  21. Watford
  22. Greenwich
  23. Harrow
  24. Sevenoaks
  25. Lambeth
  26. Hillingdon
  27. Brentwood
  28. Kingston upon Thames
  29. Tower Hamlets
  30. Enfield
  31. Kensington and Chelsea
  32. Wandsworth
  33. Haringey
  34. Hackney
  35. Bromley
  36. Waltham Forest
  37. Broxbourne
  38. Woking
  39. Hammersmith and Fulham
  40. St Albans
  41. Hemel Hempstead
  42. Guildford
  43. Merton
  44. Slough72.4%
  45. Westminster66.1%
  46. Camden60.8%
Householder decisions issued within 8 weeks as a share of decisions not covered by a planning performance agreement or agreed extension, 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026. Source: MHCLG PS2.
04Full table

46 councils, alphabetically

Current period 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026; change is against 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025. Click a council for its area page, constraints and typical routes.

CouncilDecisionsGrantedRefusedApproval rateChangeWithin 8 weeks
Barking and DagenhamLondon38825813066.5%−9.4 pts100.0%
BarnetLondon1,3611,09127080.2%−2.2 pts95.2%
BexleyLondon8778304794.6%+2.1 pts99.6%
BrentLondon87976111886.6%+5.9 pts97.4%
BrentwoodEast of England4293676285.5%−0.7 pts93.2%
BromleyLondon1,6091,26434578.6%+0.5 pts90.2%
BroxbourneEast of England2872691893.7%+6.2 pts89.9%
CamdenLondon3943514389.1%+2.3 pts60.8%
CroydonLondon78668110586.6%+3.2 pts95.3%
DartfordSouth East3682818776.4%−10.7 pts97.0%
EalingLondon94682512187.2%−2.3 pts96.0%
EnfieldLondon93477915583.4%+2.0 pts92.5%
Epping ForestEast of England75657917776.6%+3.2 pts95.8%
Epsom and EwellSouth East4113575486.9%−2.4 pts95.5%
GreenwichLondon62448114377.1%+5.2 pts94.7%
GuildfordSouth East85974211786.4%−0.5 pts77.3%
HackneyLondon4153516484.6%−0.5 pts90.3%
Hammersmith and FulhamLondon5064951197.8%+0.5 pts86.9%
HaringeyLondon6896226790.3%+0.2 pts90.4%
HarrowLondon91774916881.7%+1.6 pts94.5%
HaveringLondon98584613985.9%+5.1 pts97.7%
Hemel HempsteadDacorum · East of England6766106690.2%+0.9 pts84.1%
HillingdonLondon1,1471,03511290.2%+4.3 pts94.0%
HounslowLondon68954114878.5%+10.4 pts97.2%
IslingtonLondon3373122592.6%+0.8 pts97.3%
Kensington and ChelseaLondon6646224293.7%+0.6 pts92.0%
Kingston upon ThamesLondon74261612683.0%+4.2 pts92.9%
LambethLondon5954969983.4%+3.1 pts94.1%
LewishamLondon5785176189.4%0.0 pts95.2%
MertonLondon7597055492.9%+4.4 pts74.6%
NewhamLondon3883375186.9%+5.2 pts95.4%
RedbridgeLondon99182117082.8%+0.6 pts96.3%
Reigate and BansteadSouth East5815433893.5%+4.0 pts95.6%
Richmond upon ThamesLondon1,3021,08521783.3%+2.7 pts98.7%
SevenoaksSouth East6415796290.3%+0.2 pts94.3%
SloughSouth East4053287781.0%−2.8 pts72.4%
SouthwarkLondon5585292994.8%+0.7 pts97.5%
St AlbansEast of England98085612487.3%+1.9 pts84.5%
SuttonLondon6015524991.8%+2.3 pts95.1%
Tower HamletsLondon1911771492.7%+4.6 pts92.7%
Waltham ForestLondon77162814381.5%+8.7 pts90.1%
WandsworthLondon9778987991.9%+0.2 pts90.9%
WatfordEast of England3042436179.9%−1.1 pts94.9%
WestminsterLondon3663006682.0%+1.9 pts66.1%
Windsor and MaidenheadSouth East85065020076.5%+7.9 pts95.8%
WokingSouth East5084456387.6%+10.3 pts88.6%
London, all planning authorities23,97320,5623,41185.8%+2.1 pts93.4%
England145,609131,70713,90290.5%+1.0 pts92.6%

Download CSVDownload JSONSource tables on GOV.UK

Where the numbers come from

Every figure is derived from the District planning application statistics (PS2), open data table, published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government with the quarterly Planning applications in England release and reused here under the Open Government Licence v3.0. We take the four most recent quarters for each planning authority and sum them, so the period is a rolling year ending on the last published quarter. The latest quarter is provisional until the next release. We retrieved the table on 24 September 2026.

"(Other) householder developments": planning applications by householders for works to a house and its curtilage. Decisions are granted plus refused; withdrawn and undetermined applications are excluded. "Within 8 weeks" is the share of decisions (excluding those covered by a planning performance agreement or agreed extension) issued inside the statutory 8-week period.

Hemel Hempstead is shown against its planning authority, Dacorum. London and England totals cover every district planning authority in each area, including councils we do not serve.

How to read it, and how not to

An approval rate is not the probability that your application will be approved. It describes what a council decided on the applications it received, and applicants who take advice tend to withdraw or redesign weak schemes before a decision. A low rate can mean a strict council, or a borough where many people apply for things that were never going to pass. It is a signal about how much care the drawings and the planning statement need, not a verdict on your project.

Speed within eight weeks measures the statutory clock only. Councils increasingly ask applicants to agree an extension of time; those decisions are excluded from this measure, which is why a council can look slow here yet report strong performance on the government's own dashboard, where agreed extensions count as on time.

Citing this page

Use the figures freely with a link to this page. The CSV and JSON carry the same numbers with the previous period alongside, so a comparison can be reproduced. The page is regenerated after each quarterly release; the underlying table and the retrieval date are recorded above so a citation stays checkable.

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