Planning Approval Rate in Guildford
Guildford is close to the England average for planning permission: it approves 84.5% of applications and decides 89.4% of them within the statutory time limit, ranking #232 of 310 English authorities. This page sets out how hard it is to get planning permission in Guildford, how quickly the council decides, and how it compares with its neighbours — from official government figures plus the live planning activity PlanWatch tracks across Guildford Borough Council.
Source: official MHCLG planning statistics (PS2), 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025. Based on 1,316 decisions (1,112 granted, 204 refused).
How Guildford compares
| Guildford | 84.5% |
| South East average | 87.2% |
| England average | 87% |
Guildford is 2.5 points stricter than the England average.
How hard is it to get planning permission in Guildford?
Guildford is in the stricter third of English authorities, granting 84.5% of the applications it decides (rank 232nd of 310). That puts it close to the England average — 84.5% approved against an England average of 87%. Within South East it is the 48th most approving of 65 local planning authorities, where the regional average is 87.2%. Refusals are fairly frequent here: 204 of its 1,316 decisions were refusals (15.5%). On the split by scale it is somewhat more lenient on major schemes than on small ones: 90% of major developments approved versus 85.6% of householder and other small-scale work, from 30 major decisions.
On timing it is about average on speed, deciding 89.4% of applications within the statutory period against 90.6% nationally. Its figures rest on one of the heavier caseloads of 1,316 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 Tandridge (84.6%, more approving) and Wealden (84.4%, stricter). For context in South East, Fareham approves the most (98%) and Windsor and Maidenhead the least (68.9%).
Compare Guildford with nearby councils
Approval rates for other authorities in South East. See the full South East league table.
Approval rate by development scale in Guildford
Live planning activity in Guildford Borough Council
From the latest planning data PlanWatch holds (to 13 July 2026). These are the records we've collected — the freshness the annual government table lacks.
What people apply for in Guildford Borough Council
Where planning activity concentrates in Guildford Borough Council
Recent applications in Guildford Borough Council
Track live decisions near a postcode on the PlanWatch Guildford page.
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Planning permission in Guildford: common questions
Is it hard to get planning permission in Guildford?
On the latest official figures Guildford is close to the England average and in the stricter third of English authorities, approving 84.5% of the 1,316 applications it decided over 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025 against 87% for England.
What percentage of planning applications does Guildford approve or refuse?
Refusals are fairly frequent here: 84.5% approved and 15.5% refused — 1,112 granted and 204 refused of 1,316 decisions, with major schemes approved at 90% and householder and other work at 85.6%.
How quickly does Guildford decide planning applications?
On timing Guildford is about average on speed: 89.4% of applications were decided within the statutory period — eight weeks for most, thirteen for major schemes — against 90.6% nationally.
Is Guildford stricter than nearby councils?
Guildford's 84.5% approval rate makes it the 48th most approving of 65 authorities in South East, against a 87.2% regional average. Neighbouring Tandridge approves 84.6% and Wealden 84.4%.
Can I use Guildford's approval rate to predict whether my application will be approved?
No — the approval rate is a historic average across every application Guildford 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 Guildford Borough Council 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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