Planning Approval Rate in Calderdale
Calderdale is close to the England average for planning permission: it approves 84.6% of applications and decides 94.2% of them within the statutory time limit, ranking #230 of 310 English authorities. This page sets out how hard it is to get planning permission in Calderdale, how quickly the council decides, and how it compares with its neighbours — from official government figures plus the live planning activity PlanWatch tracks across Calderdale.
Source: official MHCLG planning statistics (PS2), 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025. Based on 877 decisions (742 granted, 135 refused).
How Calderdale compares
| Calderdale | 84.6% |
| Yorkshire and the Humber average | 87.4% |
| England average | 87% |
Calderdale is 2.4 points stricter than the England average.
How hard is it to get planning permission in Calderdale?
Calderdale is in the stricter third of English authorities, granting 84.6% of the applications it decides (rank 230th of 310). That puts it close to the England average — 84.6% approved against an England average of 87%. Within Yorkshire and the Humber it is the 12th most approving of 15 local planning authorities, where the regional average is 87.4%. Refusals are fairly frequent here: 135 of its 877 decisions were refusals (15.4%). On the split by scale it is about as likely to approve major schemes as small ones: 87.5% of major developments approved versus 85.8% of householder and other small-scale work, from 32 major decisions.
On timing it is a little faster than average, deciding 94.2% of applications within the statutory period against 90.6% nationally. Its figures rest on a mid-sized caseload of 877 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 Bradford (85.2%, more approving) and York (83.7%, stricter). For context in Yorkshire and the Humber, North East Lincolnshire approves the most (95.3%) and Rotherham the least (79.9%).
Compare Calderdale 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 Calderdale
Live planning activity in Calderdale
From the latest planning data PlanWatch holds (to 24 August 2026). These are the records we've collected — the freshness the annual government table lacks.
What people apply for in Calderdale
Where planning activity concentrates in Calderdale
Recent applications in Calderdale
Track live decisions near a postcode on the PlanWatch Calderdale page.
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Planning permission in Calderdale: common questions
Is it hard to get planning permission in Calderdale?
On the latest official figures Calderdale is close to the England average and in the stricter third of English authorities, approving 84.6% of the 877 applications it decided over 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025 against 87% for England.
What percentage of planning applications does Calderdale approve or refuse?
Refusals are fairly frequent here: 84.6% approved and 15.4% refused — 742 granted and 135 refused of 877 decisions, with major schemes approved at 87.5% and householder and other work at 85.8%.
How quickly does Calderdale decide planning applications?
On timing Calderdale is a little faster than average: 94.2% of applications were decided within the statutory period — eight weeks for most, thirteen for major schemes — against 90.6% nationally.
Is Calderdale stricter than nearby councils?
Calderdale's 84.6% approval rate makes it the 12th most approving of 15 authorities in Yorkshire and the Humber, against a 87.4% regional average. Neighbouring Bradford approves 85.2% and York 83.7%.
Can I use Calderdale's approval rate to predict whether my application will be approved?
No — the approval rate is a historic average across every application Calderdale 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 Calderdale 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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