Best and worst Northern councils for planning approvals
What local authority has the highest percentage of decisions approved? And which has the worst? How do Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, and Newcastle compare?
Using the most recent data from the Ministry of Housing, Communities, and Local Government, here’s a look at how local authorities across the North performed when it came to granting planning permission in the year ending March 2024.
Local authorities with the highest application approval rate
- Knowsley – 97%
- Darlington – 96%
- Preston – 96%
- Stockton-on-Tees – 95%
- Cumberland – 95%
- South Tyneside – 95%
- Redcar and Cleveland – 95%
- Yorkshire Dales National Park – 95%
- North Tyneside – 95%
- Halton – 94%
Local authorities with the lowest application approval rate
- Calderdale – 73%
- Rossendale – 75%
- Ribble Valley – 76%
- Middlesbrough – 77%
- Blackpool – 78%
- Pendle – 80%
- Bradford – 81%
- Rochdale – 82%
- Warrington – 82%
- Leeds – 83%
What about the major cities and communities not on the best or worst lists?
County Durham in the North East had one of the higher approval percentages, with 94% of applications granted permission. Sunderland and Newcastle-upon-Tyne both had 92% scores.
In Yorkshire, we already know that Leeds only approved 83% of its applications – and Bradford 81%. York and Sheffield applications had better luck, with 86% and 88% being approved, respectively. Hull and Hartlepool projects were better off still – 91% and 92% received sign-off.
Over in the North West, Manchester was proven to have approved 90% of its applications, while Liverpool only greenlit 85%.
Within Greater Manchester, Stockport boasted the highest approval percentage, with 92% of applications making it through the system unscathed. This was closely followed by Salford and Tameside, whose approval percentages were 91%.
The worst performers were Rochdale (82%), Bolton (83%), and Trafford (84%).
Zeroing in on Liverpool City Region, Knowsley was the clear best performer, with 97% of applications making it through the planning gauntlet. Halton and St Helens followed with 94% and 91% scores. Wirral, with its 86% approval rating, was not the worst performer for the region – that honour went to Liverpool where 85% of applications are approved.
Are councils with high pass rates “best performers”? Or are they negligent?
Surely it all depends on the type and quality of application received, and these will differ from place to place.
A crude ranking system and ascribing “performance” to is rather immature.
By John
Though Liverpool might be approving a lot of applications that does not really tell us much, it’s the ones that get refused that might tell us more. Just looking at Liverpool’s planning portal you don’t see that many mega or stand out applications, this shows developers aren’t interested, or they shy away cos they get a hard time, or perhaps the council are obstructive over things like height, design, or section 106 maybe.
You see Liverpool passing loads of applications for household issues, tree works, HMOs , communication antennas, etc and this boosts their numbers.
We only have to read Planning Committe minutes to see how obstinate they are and my best one recently is regarding ITSU a really good asian-style food outlet who wanted to open at 11 Paradise Street but the council got funny over their awnings, and actually said they were not in keeping with the street scape, when in reality the nearby street scape is a number of tatty stalls selling bleach and footy scarves, no wonder ITSU walked away.
By Anonymous
Please can you publish analysis and comparison of time taken for planning decisions, particularly in reference to statutory timescales.
By Richard
Percentage of planning applications approved has no relationship to best/worst performance of a Planning Authority. Really poor journalism. And on that “green-lit” if you google it means approved without thought and I am sure that all those involved would take umbrage to being essentially called thoughtless, mindless, even lazy and not giving due diligence to their roles. Again, p poor journalism … isn’t it a profession in which words, meaning and semantics are central .. or is this third rate click bait? Up your game!
By A.Nonymous
Hi A.Nonymous! A very good point that application approval percentages should not be the only determination as to best or worst planning authority, it is only one factor of many and I’ve really enjoyed reading our commenters thoughts on other areas that should be considered. I believe the story is very clear and consistent regarding what it is looking at in terms of data. I’m afraid you and I have different definitions about “greenlight”, I was using the Merriam Webster, Collins, and Cambridge Dictionary definitions, which do not mention the “without thought” definition. As an organisation that has covered planning matters for awhile, we are well aware that these decisions require lots of diligence and a good share of thought and care. Apologies for those who felt we were implying otherwise. I’m at julia@placenorthwest.co.uk if you’d like to discuss this further. Would love to hear other pieces of data you would like to see us publish going forward.
By Julia Hatmaker
hasnt the department/ministry’s name changed
i imagine leeds’ low approval rate is partly as they probably get way more applications than places like knowsley.
By Anonymous
You are correct! I’ve updated the story. As Keir Starmer said himself today when he accidently referred to Rishi Sunak as Prime Minister “old habits die hard”. We will be better going forward!
By Julia Hatmaker
Best and worst? There are clearly elements of the approval process that are governed by LPA ‘performance’, such as registering and deciding applications in good time (which is reported in the data download), and applying policy consistently etc. However, the percentage of applications approved is strongly influenced by the suitability of the proposals. By the logic applied in this article i.e the highest percentage of approvals is the ‘best’ and the lowest percentage of approvals is the ‘worst’, an LPA that approved every single application would be the gold standard of planning policy application. Please correct me if I have missed something here, but surely the best performing LPA would be the one that shapes and facilitates development whilst protecting their jurisdiction from inappropriate proposals; by not approving them.
By Designer
Well said Designer
By Verum
Is the approval rate the best indicator of performance. Or is it as much an indicator of the quality of the schemes submitted.
By Nick Barton
The data you present is irrelevant without a lot of context and analysis. One of the worst articles you’ve ever published.
By Peter Black
julia catching so many strays in this comment section, nowhere in this article does she equate the approval rate to anything other than the approval rate. i see people asking for things like timeliness of decisions – did you bother downloading the spreadsheet which Julia links at the end and provides this?
By Anonymous
@Anonymous at 8.43 July 23
“nowhere in this article does she equate the approval rate to anything other than the approval rate”
Except for the headline which characterises the approval rates as ‘best and worst’
By Sten
It’s not necessarily good that high % of applications are passed.
What’s important is the quality of the applications. Unless the poor applications are rejected it’s a downwards spiral to mediocrity at best and carbuncles that the population has to live with.
By Martin Dale