Planning Approval Rate in Barnet
Barnet is markedly stricter than the typical English council for planning permission: it approves 76.4% of applications and decides 95.8% of them within the statutory time limit, ranking #294 of 310 English authorities. This page sets out how hard it is to get planning permission in Barnet, how quickly the council decides, and how it compares with its neighbours — from official government figures plus the live planning activity PlanWatch tracks across Barnet.
Source: official MHCLG planning statistics (PS2), 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025. Based on 2,539 decisions (1,940 granted, 599 refused).
How Barnet compares
| Barnet | 76.4% |
| London average | 82.5% |
| England average | 87% |
Barnet is 10.6 points stricter than the England average.
How hard is it to get planning permission in Barnet?
Barnet is among the ten per cent strictest authorities in England, granting 76.4% of the applications it decides (rank 294th of 310). That puts it markedly stricter than the typical English council — 76.4% approved against an England average of 87%. Within London it is the 26th most approving of 34 local planning authorities, where the regional average is 82.5%. Refusals are fairly frequent here: 599 of its 2,539 decisions were refusals (23.6%). On the split by scale it is somewhat more lenient on major schemes than on small ones: 90.9% of major developments approved versus 79.7% of householder and other small-scale work, from 33 major decisions.
On timing it is a little faster than average, deciding 95.8% of applications within the statutory period against 90.6% nationally. Its figures rest on one of the heavier caseloads of 2,539 decisions over 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025, where the typical English authority decides around 783. Among its London neighbours it sits between Greenwich (77.6%, more approving) and Bromley (75.4%, stricter). For context in London, Hammersmith and Fulham approves the most (97.2%) and Barking and Dagenham the least (66.2%).
Compare Barnet with nearby councils
Approval rates for other authorities in London. See the full London league table.
Approval rate by development scale in Barnet
Live planning activity in Barnet
From the latest planning data PlanWatch holds (to 25 August 2026). These are the records we've collected — the freshness the annual government table lacks.
What people apply for in Barnet
Where planning activity concentrates in Barnet
Recent applications in Barnet
Track live decisions near a postcode on the PlanWatch Barnet page.
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Planning permission in Barnet: common questions
Is it hard to get planning permission in Barnet?
On the latest official figures Barnet is markedly stricter than the typical English council and among the ten per cent strictest authorities in England, approving 76.4% of the 2,539 applications it decided over 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025 against 87% for England.
What percentage of planning applications does Barnet approve or refuse?
Refusals are fairly frequent here: 76.4% approved and 23.6% refused — 1,940 granted and 599 refused of 2,539 decisions, with major schemes approved at 90.9% and householder and other work at 79.7%.
How quickly does Barnet decide planning applications?
On timing Barnet is a little faster than average: 95.8% of applications were decided within the statutory period — eight weeks for most, thirteen for major schemes — against 90.6% nationally.
Is Barnet stricter than nearby councils?
Barnet's 76.4% approval rate makes it the 26th most approving of 34 authorities in London, against a 82.5% regional average. Neighbouring Greenwich approves 77.6% and Bromley 75.4%.
Can I use Barnet's approval rate to predict whether my application will be approved?
No — the approval rate is a historic average across every application Barnet 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 Barnet 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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