Planning Approval Rate in Kirklees
Kirklees is somewhat more approving than the England average for planning permission: it approves 91.6% of applications and decides 90.9% of them within the statutory time limit, ranking #93 of 310 English authorities. This page sets out how hard it is to get planning permission in Kirklees, how quickly the council decides, and how it compares with its neighbours — from official government figures plus the live planning activity PlanWatch tracks across Kirklees Metropolitan Council.
Source: official MHCLG planning statistics (PS2), 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025. Based on 1,719 decisions (1,574 granted, 145 refused).
How Kirklees compares
| Kirklees | 91.6% |
| Yorkshire and the Humber average | 87.4% |
| England average | 87% |
Kirklees is 4.6 points easier than the England average.
How hard is it to get planning permission in Kirklees?
Kirklees is in the more approving third of English authorities, granting 91.6% of the applications it decides (rank 93rd of 310). That puts it somewhat more approving than the England average — 91.6% approved against an England average of 87%. Within Yorkshire and the Humber it is the 4th most approving of 15 local planning authorities, where the regional average is 87.4%. Refusals are uncommon here: 145 of its 1,719 decisions were refusals (8.4%). On the split by scale it is about as likely to approve major schemes as small ones: 91.4% of major developments approved versus 93% of householder and other small-scale work, from 58 major decisions.
On timing it is about average on speed, deciding 90.9% of applications within the statutory period against 90.6% nationally. Its figures rest on one of the heavier caseloads of 1,719 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 Wakefield (92%, more approving) and Kingston upon Hull, City of (91.5%, stricter). For context in Yorkshire and the Humber, North East Lincolnshire approves the most (95.3%) and Rotherham the least (79.9%).
Compare Kirklees 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 Kirklees
Live planning activity in Kirklees Metropolitan Council
From the latest planning data PlanWatch holds (to 27 August 2026). These are the records we've collected — the freshness the annual government table lacks.
What people apply for in Kirklees Metropolitan Council
Where planning activity concentrates in Kirklees Metropolitan Council
Recent applications in Kirklees Metropolitan Council
Track live decisions near a postcode on the PlanWatch Kirklees page.
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Planning permission in Kirklees: common questions
Is it hard to get planning permission in Kirklees?
On the latest official figures Kirklees is somewhat more approving than the England average and in the more approving third of English authorities, approving 91.6% of the 1,719 applications it decided over 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025 against 87% for England.
What percentage of planning applications does Kirklees approve or refuse?
Refusals are uncommon here: 91.6% approved and 8.4% refused — 1,574 granted and 145 refused of 1,719 decisions, with major schemes approved at 91.4% and householder and other work at 93%.
How quickly does Kirklees decide planning applications?
On timing Kirklees is about average on speed: 90.9% of applications were decided within the statutory period — eight weeks for most, thirteen for major schemes — against 90.6% nationally.
Is Kirklees stricter than nearby councils?
Kirklees's 91.6% approval rate makes it the 4th most approving of 15 authorities in Yorkshire and the Humber, against a 87.4% regional average. Neighbouring Wakefield approves 92% and Kingston upon Hull, City of 91.5%.
Can I use Kirklees's approval rate to predict whether my application will be approved?
No — the approval rate is a historic average across every application Kirklees 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 Kirklees Metropolitan 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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