Planning Approval Rate in Harrow
Harrow is markedly stricter than the typical English council for planning permission: it approves 78.2% of applications and decides 91.2% of them within the statutory time limit, ranking #286 of 310 English authorities. This is the approval-rate record for Harrow: 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 Harrow planning applications by postcode on PlanWatch.
Source: official MHCLG planning statistics (PS2), 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025. Based on 1,316 decisions (1,029 granted, 287 refused).
How Harrow compares
| Harrow | 78.2% |
| London average | 82.5% |
| England average | 87% |
Harrow is 8.8 points stricter than the England average.
How hard is it to get planning permission in Harrow?
Harrow is among the ten per cent strictest authorities in England, granting 78.2% of the applications it decides (rank 286th of 310). That puts it markedly stricter than the typical English council — 78.2% approved against an England average of 87%. Within London it is the 24th most approving of 34 local planning authorities, where the regional average is 82.5%. Refusals are fairly frequent here: 287 of its 1,316 decisions were refusals (21.8%). On the split by scale it is far tougher on major schemes than on small ones: 64.3% of major developments approved versus 82.7% of householder and other small-scale work, from 14 major decisions.
On timing it is about average on speed, deciding 91.2% 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 London neighbours it sits between Enfield (78.8%, more approving) and Greenwich (77.6%, stricter). For context in London, Hammersmith and Fulham approves the most (97.2%) and Barking and Dagenham the least (66.2%).
Compare Harrow with nearby councils
Approval rates for other authorities in London. See the full London league table.
Approval rate by development scale in Harrow
Live planning activity in Harrow Council
From the latest planning data PlanWatch holds (to 12 October 2026). These are the records we've collected — the freshness the annual government table lacks.
What people apply for in Harrow Council
Where planning activity concentrates in Harrow Council
Recent applications in Harrow Council
This is a sample, not the full register. Search Harrow planning applications by postcode.
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Planning permission in Harrow: common questions
Is it hard to get planning permission in Harrow?
On the latest official figures Harrow is markedly stricter than the typical English council and among the ten per cent strictest authorities in England, approving 78.2% 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 Harrow approve or refuse?
Refusals are fairly frequent here: 78.2% approved and 21.8% refused — 1,029 granted and 287 refused of 1,316 decisions, with major schemes approved at 64.3% and householder and other work at 82.7%.
How quickly does Harrow decide planning applications?
On timing Harrow is about average on speed: 91.2% of applications were decided within the statutory period — eight weeks for most, thirteen for major schemes — against 90.6% nationally.
Is Harrow stricter than nearby councils?
Harrow's 78.2% approval rate makes it the 24th most approving of 34 authorities in London, against a 82.5% regional average. Neighbouring Enfield approves 78.8% and Greenwich 77.6%.
Can I use Harrow's approval rate to predict whether my application will be approved?
No — the approval rate is a historic average across every application Harrow 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 Harrow 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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