Planning Approval Rate in Barking and Dagenham
Barking and Dagenham is markedly stricter than the typical English council for planning permission: it approves 66.2% of applications and decides 100% of them within the statutory time limit, ranking #309 of 310 English authorities. This page sets out how hard it is to get planning permission in Barking and Dagenham, how quickly the council decides, and how it compares with its neighbours — from official government figures plus the live planning activity PlanWatch tracks across Barking and Dagenham.
Source: official MHCLG planning statistics (PS2), 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025. Based on 713 decisions (472 granted, 241 refused).
How Barking and Dagenham compares
| Barking and Dagenham | 66.2% |
| London average | 82.5% |
| England average | 87% |
Barking and Dagenham is 20.8 points stricter than the England average.
How hard is it to get planning permission in Barking and Dagenham?
Barking and Dagenham is among the ten per cent strictest authorities in England, granting 66.2% of the applications it decides (rank 309th of 310). That puts it markedly stricter than the typical English council — 66.2% approved against an England average of 87%. Within London it is the strictest of 34 local planning authorities, where the regional average is 82.5%. Refusals are common here: 241 of its 713 decisions were refusals (33.8%). On the split by scale it is strikingly more lenient on major schemes than on small ones: 95.2% of major developments approved versus 65.9% of householder and other small-scale work, from 21 major decisions.
On timing it is among the faster authorities, deciding 100% of applications within the statutory period against 90.6% nationally. Its figures rest on a mid-sized caseload of 713 decisions over 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025, where the typical English authority decides around 783. It is stricter than its nearest London peer by rank, Hounslow (68.3%). At the other end of London, Hammersmith and Fulham is the most approving, at 97.2%.
Compare Barking and Dagenham with nearby councils
Approval rates for other authorities in London. See the full London league table.
Approval rate by development scale in Barking and Dagenham
Live planning activity in Barking and Dagenham
From the latest planning data PlanWatch holds (to 2 July 2026). These are the records we've collected — the freshness the annual government table lacks.
What people apply for in Barking and Dagenham
Where planning activity concentrates in Barking and Dagenham
Recent applications in Barking and Dagenham
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Planning permission in Barking and Dagenham: common questions
Is it hard to get planning permission in Barking and Dagenham?
On the latest official figures Barking and Dagenham is markedly stricter than the typical English council and among the ten per cent strictest authorities in England, approving 66.2% of the 713 applications it decided over 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025 against 87% for England.
What percentage of planning applications does Barking and Dagenham approve or refuse?
Refusals are common here: 66.2% approved and 33.8% refused — 472 granted and 241 refused of 713 decisions, with major schemes approved at 95.2% and householder and other work at 65.9%.
How quickly does Barking and Dagenham decide planning applications?
On timing Barking and Dagenham is among the faster authorities: 100% of applications were decided within the statutory period — eight weeks for most, thirteen for major schemes — against 90.6% nationally.
Is Barking and Dagenham stricter than nearby councils?
Barking and Dagenham's 66.2% approval rate makes it the strictest of 34 authorities in London, against a 82.5% regional average. Neighbouring Hounslow approves 68.3%.
Can I use Barking and Dagenham's approval rate to predict whether my application will be approved?
No — the approval rate is a historic average across every application Barking and Dagenham decided, not a prediction for any individual application; your outcome depends on the site, the proposal, local planning policy and any objections.
Methodology & limits
Approval, refusal and in-time rates come from the government's official PS2 planning application statistics (Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government), covering 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025. This dataset is England-only and published annually, so it lags live activity. Live figures are the applications PlanWatch has collected for Barking and Dagenham and are not a complete council register. Refusal reasons and delegated-vs-committee splits are not published in this data.
This is a historic average, not a prediction. It cannot tell you whether your application will be approved — that depends on your site, proposal, local policy and any objections.
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