Planning Approval Rate in Barnsley
Barnsley is somewhat more approving than the England average for planning permission: it approves 93.4% of applications and decides 79.4% of them within the statutory time limit, ranking #56 of 310 English authorities. This page sets out how hard it is to get planning permission in Barnsley, how quickly the council decides, and how it compares with its neighbours — from official government figures plus the live planning activity PlanWatch tracks across Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council.
Source: official MHCLG planning statistics (PS2), 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025. Based on 647 decisions (604 granted, 43 refused).
How Barnsley compares
| Barnsley | 93.4% |
| Yorkshire and the Humber average | 87.4% |
| England average | 87% |
Barnsley is 6.4 points easier than the England average.
How hard is it to get planning permission in Barnsley?
Barnsley is in the more approving third of English authorities, granting 93.4% of the applications it decides (rank 56th of 310). That puts it somewhat more approving than the England average — 93.4% approved against an England average of 87%. Within Yorkshire and the Humber it is the 2nd most approving of 15 local planning authorities, where the regional average is 87.4%. Refusals are uncommon here: 43 of its 647 decisions were refusals (6.6%). On the split by scale it is somewhat tougher on major schemes than on small ones: 89.3% of major developments approved versus 93.6% of householder and other small-scale work, from 28 major decisions.
On timing it is among the slower authorities, deciding 79.4% of applications within the statutory period against 90.6% nationally. Its figures rest on a mid-sized caseload of 647 decisions over 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025, where the typical English authority decides around 783. Among its Yorkshire and the Humber neighbours it sits between North East Lincolnshire (95.3%, more approving) and Wakefield (92%, stricter). For context in Yorkshire and the Humber, North East Lincolnshire approves the most (95.3%) and Rotherham the least (79.9%).
Compare Barnsley with nearby councils
Approval rates for other authorities in Yorkshire and the Humber. See the full Yorkshire and the Humber league table.
Approval rate by development scale in Barnsley
Live planning activity in Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council
From the latest planning data PlanWatch holds (to 23 August 2026). These are the records we've collected — the freshness the annual government table lacks.
What people apply for in Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council
Where planning activity concentrates in Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council
Recent applications in Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council
Track live decisions near a postcode on the PlanWatch Barnsley page.
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Planning permission in Barnsley: common questions
Is it hard to get planning permission in Barnsley?
On the latest official figures Barnsley is somewhat more approving than the England average and in the more approving third of English authorities, approving 93.4% of the 647 applications it decided over 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025 against 87% for England.
What percentage of planning applications does Barnsley approve or refuse?
Refusals are uncommon here: 93.4% approved and 6.6% refused — 604 granted and 43 refused of 647 decisions, with major schemes approved at 89.3% and householder and other work at 93.6%.
How quickly does Barnsley decide planning applications?
On timing Barnsley is among the slower authorities: 79.4% of applications were decided within the statutory period — eight weeks for most, thirteen for major schemes — against 90.6% nationally.
Is Barnsley stricter than nearby councils?
Barnsley's 93.4% approval rate makes it the 2nd most approving of 15 authorities in Yorkshire and the Humber, against a 87.4% regional average. Neighbouring North East Lincolnshire approves 95.3% and Wakefield 92%.
Can I use Barnsley's approval rate to predict whether my application will be approved?
No — the approval rate is a historic average across every application Barnsley 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 Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council 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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