Planning Approval Rate in Bracknell Forest
Bracknell Forest is close to the England average for planning permission: it approves 86.3% of applications and decides 89.7% of them within the statutory time limit, ranking #202 of 310 English authorities. This is the approval-rate record for Bracknell Forest: how hard it is to get planning permission, how quickly the council decides, and how it compares with its neighbours, from official government statistics.
Looking for a particular application rather than the statistics? Search Bracknell Forest planning applications by postcode on PlanWatch.
Source: official MHCLG planning statistics (PS2), 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025. Based on 524 decisions (452 granted, 72 refused).
How Bracknell Forest compares
| Bracknell Forest | 86.3% |
| South East average | 87.2% |
| England average | 87% |
Bracknell Forest is about average for England.
How hard is it to get planning permission in Bracknell Forest?
Bracknell Forest is a little stricter than the median English authority, granting 86.3% of the applications it decides (rank 202nd of 310). That puts it close to the England average — 86.3% approved against an England average of 87%. Within South East it is the 44th most approving of 65 local planning authorities, where the regional average is 87.2%. Refusals are fairly frequent here: 72 of its 524 decisions were refusals (13.7%). On the split by scale it is about as likely to approve major schemes as small ones: 87% of major developments approved versus 90% of householder and other small-scale work, from 23 major decisions.
On timing it is about average on speed, deciding 89.7% of applications within the statutory period against 90.6% nationally. Its figures rest on a mid-sized caseload of 524 decisions over 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025, where the typical English authority decides around 783. Among its South East neighbours it sits between Milton Keynes (86.6%, more approving) and Arun (85.6%, stricter). For context in South East, Fareham approves the most (98%) and Windsor and Maidenhead the least (68.9%).
Compare Bracknell Forest with nearby councils
Approval rates for other authorities in South East. See the full South East league table.
Approval rate by development scale in Bracknell Forest
Live planning activity in Bracknell Forest
From the latest planning data PlanWatch holds (to 13 October 2026). These are the records we've collected — the freshness the annual government table lacks.
What people apply for in Bracknell Forest
Where planning activity concentrates in Bracknell Forest
Recent applications in Bracknell Forest
This is a sample, not the full register. Search Bracknell Forest planning applications by postcode.
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Planning permission in Bracknell Forest: common questions
Is it hard to get planning permission in Bracknell Forest?
On the latest official figures Bracknell Forest is close to the England average and a little stricter than the median English authority, approving 86.3% of the 524 applications it decided over 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025 against 87% for England.
What percentage of planning applications does Bracknell Forest approve or refuse?
Refusals are fairly frequent here: 86.3% approved and 13.7% refused — 452 granted and 72 refused of 524 decisions, with major schemes approved at 87% and householder and other work at 90%.
How quickly does Bracknell Forest decide planning applications?
On timing Bracknell Forest is about average on speed: 89.7% of applications were decided within the statutory period — eight weeks for most, thirteen for major schemes — against 90.6% nationally.
Is Bracknell Forest stricter than nearby councils?
Bracknell Forest's 86.3% approval rate makes it the 44th most approving of 65 authorities in South East, against a 87.2% regional average. Neighbouring Milton Keynes approves 86.6% and Arun 85.6%.
Can I use Bracknell Forest's approval rate to predict whether my application will be approved?
No — the approval rate is a historic average across every application Bracknell Forest 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 Bracknell Forest 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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