Planning Approval Rate in Bath and North East Somerset
Bath and North East Somerset is somewhat more approving than the England average for planning permission: it approves 94.8% of applications and decides 79.5% of them within the statutory time limit, ranking #26 of 310 English authorities. This page sets out how hard it is to get planning permission in Bath and North East Somerset, how quickly the council decides, and how it compares with its neighbours — from official government figures plus the live planning activity PlanWatch tracks across Bath and North East Somerset.
Source: official MHCLG planning statistics (PS2), 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025. Based on 1,835 decisions (1,739 granted, 96 refused).
How Bath and North East Somerset compares
| Bath and North East Somerset | 94.8% |
| South West average | 89.5% |
| England average | 87% |
Bath and North East Somerset is 7.8 points easier than the England average.
How hard is it to get planning permission in Bath and North East Somerset?
Bath and North East Somerset is among the ten per cent most approving authorities in England, granting 94.8% of the applications it decides (rank 26th of 310). That puts it somewhat more approving than the England average — 94.8% approved against an England average of 87%. Within South West it is the 2nd most approving of 27 local planning authorities, where the regional average is 89.5%. Refusals are uncommon here: 96 of its 1,835 decisions were refusals (5.2%). On the split by scale it is about as likely to approve major schemes as small ones: 93.9% of major developments approved versus 96.6% of householder and other small-scale work, from 33 major decisions.
On timing it is among the slower authorities, deciding 79.5% of applications within the statutory period against 90.6% nationally. Its figures rest on one of the heavier caseloads of 1,835 decisions over 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025, where the typical English authority decides around 783. Among its South West neighbours it sits between Cheltenham (96.5%, more approving) and Mid Devon (94.4%, stricter). For context in South West, Cheltenham approves the most (96.5%) and Gloucester the least (80.5%).
Compare Bath and North East Somerset with nearby councils
Approval rates for other authorities in South West. See the full South West league table.
Approval rate by development scale in Bath and North East Somerset
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Planning permission in Bath and North East Somerset: common questions
Is it hard to get planning permission in Bath and North East Somerset?
On the latest official figures Bath and North East Somerset is somewhat more approving than the England average and among the ten per cent most approving authorities in England, approving 94.8% of the 1,835 applications it decided over 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025 against 87% for England.
What percentage of planning applications does Bath and North East Somerset approve or refuse?
Refusals are uncommon here: 94.8% approved and 5.2% refused — 1,739 granted and 96 refused of 1,835 decisions, with major schemes approved at 93.9% and householder and other work at 96.6%.
How quickly does Bath and North East Somerset decide planning applications?
On timing Bath and North East Somerset is among the slower authorities: 79.5% of applications were decided within the statutory period — eight weeks for most, thirteen for major schemes — against 90.6% nationally.
Is Bath and North East Somerset stricter than nearby councils?
Bath and North East Somerset's 94.8% approval rate makes it the 2nd most approving of 27 authorities in South West, against a 89.5% regional average. Neighbouring Cheltenham approves 96.5% and Mid Devon 94.4%.
Can I use Bath and North East Somerset's approval rate to predict whether my application will be approved?
No — the approval rate is a historic average across every application Bath and North East Somerset 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 Bath and North East Somerset 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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