Planning Approval Rate in Bradford
Bradford is close to the England average for planning permission: it approves 85.2% of applications and decides 82.8% of them within the statutory time limit, ranking #223 of 310 English authorities. This page sets out how hard it is to get planning permission in Bradford, how quickly the council decides, and how it compares with its neighbours — from official government figures plus the live planning activity PlanWatch tracks across Bradford.
Source: official MHCLG planning statistics (PS2), 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025. Based on 2,330 decisions (1,985 granted, 345 refused).
How Bradford compares
| Bradford | 85.2% |
| Yorkshire and the Humber average | 87.4% |
| England average | 87% |
Bradford is 1.8 points stricter than the England average.
How hard is it to get planning permission in Bradford?
Bradford is in the stricter third of English authorities, granting 85.2% of the applications it decides (rank 223rd of 310). That puts it close to the England average — 85.2% approved against an England average of 87%. Within Yorkshire and the Humber it is the 11th most approving of 15 local planning authorities, where the regional average is 87.4%. Refusals are fairly frequent here: 345 of its 2,330 decisions were refusals (14.8%). On the split by scale it is somewhat more lenient on major schemes than on small ones: 91.4% of major developments approved versus 87.2% of householder and other small-scale work, from 35 major decisions.
On timing it is among the slower authorities, deciding 82.8% of applications within the statutory period against 90.6% nationally. Its figures rest on one of the heavier caseloads of 2,330 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 Lincolnshire (86%, more approving) and Calderdale (84.6%, stricter). For context in Yorkshire and the Humber, North East Lincolnshire approves the most (95.3%) and Rotherham the least (79.9%).
Compare Bradford 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 Bradford
Live planning activity in Bradford
From the latest planning data PlanWatch holds (to 2 September 2026). These are the records we've collected — the freshness the annual government table lacks.
What people apply for in Bradford
Where planning activity concentrates in Bradford
Recent applications in Bradford
Track live decisions near a postcode on the PlanWatch Bradford page.
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Planning permission in Bradford: common questions
Is it hard to get planning permission in Bradford?
On the latest official figures Bradford is close to the England average and in the stricter third of English authorities, approving 85.2% of the 2,330 applications it decided over 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025 against 87% for England.
What percentage of planning applications does Bradford approve or refuse?
Refusals are fairly frequent here: 85.2% approved and 14.8% refused — 1,985 granted and 345 refused of 2,330 decisions, with major schemes approved at 91.4% and householder and other work at 87.2%.
How quickly does Bradford decide planning applications?
On timing Bradford is among the slower authorities: 82.8% of applications were decided within the statutory period — eight weeks for most, thirteen for major schemes — against 90.6% nationally.
Is Bradford stricter than nearby councils?
Bradford's 85.2% approval rate makes it the 11th most approving of 15 authorities in Yorkshire and the Humber, against a 87.4% regional average. Neighbouring North Lincolnshire approves 86% and Calderdale 84.6%.
Can I use Bradford's approval rate to predict whether my application will be approved?
No — the approval rate is a historic average across every application Bradford 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 Bradford 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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