Planning Approval Rate in Ealing
Ealing is close to the England average for planning permission: it approves 85.2% of applications and decides 95.3% of them within the statutory time limit, ranking #224 of 310 English authorities. This page sets out how hard it is to get planning permission in Ealing, how quickly the council decides, and how it compares with its neighbours — from official government figures plus the live planning activity PlanWatch tracks across Ealing.
Source: official MHCLG planning statistics (PS2), 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025. Based on 1,835 decisions (1,563 granted, 272 refused).
How Ealing compares
| Ealing | 85.2% |
| London average | 82.5% |
| England average | 87% |
Ealing is 1.8 points stricter than the England average.
How hard is it to get planning permission in Ealing?
Ealing is in the stricter third of English authorities, granting 85.2% of the applications it decides (rank 224th of 310). That puts it close to the England average — 85.2% approved against an England average of 87%. Within London it is the 14th most approving of 34 local planning authorities, where the regional average is 82.5%. Refusals are fairly frequent here: 272 of its 1,835 decisions were refusals (14.8%). On the split by scale it is somewhat more lenient on major schemes than on small ones: 97.4% of major developments approved versus 88.2% of householder and other small-scale work, from 38 major decisions.
On timing it is a little faster than average, deciding 95.3% 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 London neighbours it sits between Haringey (85.3%, more approving) and Lewisham (84.6%, stricter). For context in London, Hammersmith and Fulham approves the most (97.2%) and Barking and Dagenham the least (66.2%).
Compare Ealing with nearby councils
Approval rates for other authorities in London. See the full London league table.
Approval rate by development scale in Ealing
Live planning activity in Ealing
From the latest planning data PlanWatch holds (to 3 September 2026). These are the records we've collected — the freshness the annual government table lacks.
What people apply for in Ealing
Where planning activity concentrates in Ealing
Recent applications in Ealing
Track live decisions near a postcode on the PlanWatch Ealing page.
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Planning permission in Ealing: common questions
Is it hard to get planning permission in Ealing?
On the latest official figures Ealing is close to the England average and in the stricter third of English authorities, approving 85.2% 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 Ealing approve or refuse?
Refusals are fairly frequent here: 85.2% approved and 14.8% refused — 1,563 granted and 272 refused of 1,835 decisions, with major schemes approved at 97.4% and householder and other work at 88.2%.
How quickly does Ealing decide planning applications?
On timing Ealing is a little faster than average: 95.3% of applications were decided within the statutory period — eight weeks for most, thirteen for major schemes — against 90.6% nationally.
Is Ealing stricter than nearby councils?
Ealing's 85.2% approval rate makes it the 14th most approving of 34 authorities in London, against a 82.5% regional average. Neighbouring Haringey approves 85.3% and Lewisham 84.6%.
Can I use Ealing's approval rate to predict whether my application will be approved?
No — the approval rate is a historic average across every application Ealing 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 Ealing 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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