Planning Approval Rate in Leeds
Leeds is somewhat stricter than the England average for planning permission: it approves 83.4% of applications and decides 90.3% of them within the statutory time limit, ranking #246 of 310 English authorities. This page sets out how hard it is to get planning permission in Leeds, how quickly the council decides, and how it compares with its neighbours — from official government figures plus the live planning activity PlanWatch tracks across Leeds.
Source: official MHCLG planning statistics (PS2), 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025. Based on 3,649 decisions (3,043 granted, 606 refused).
How Leeds compares
| Leeds | 83.4% |
| Yorkshire and the Humber average | 87.4% |
| England average | 87% |
Leeds is 3.6 points stricter than the England average.
How hard is it to get planning permission in Leeds?
Leeds is in the stricter third of English authorities, granting 83.4% of the applications it decides (rank 246th of 310). That puts it somewhat stricter than the England average — 83.4% approved against an England average of 87%. Within Yorkshire and the Humber it is the 14th most approving of 15 local planning authorities, where the regional average is 87.4%. Refusals are fairly frequent here: 606 of its 3,649 decisions were refusals (16.6%). On the split by scale it is somewhat more lenient on major schemes than on small ones: 90.6% of major developments approved versus 83.3% of householder and other small-scale work, from 96 major decisions.
On timing it is about average on speed, deciding 90.3% of applications within the statutory period against 90.6% nationally. Its figures rest on one of the heavier caseloads of 3,649 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 York (83.7%, more approving) and Rotherham (79.9%, stricter). For context in Yorkshire and the Humber, North East Lincolnshire approves the most (95.3%) and Rotherham the least (79.9%).
Compare Leeds 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 Leeds
Live planning activity in Leeds
From the latest planning data PlanWatch holds (to 2 September 2026). These are the records we've collected — the freshness the annual government table lacks.
What people apply for in Leeds
Where planning activity concentrates in Leeds
Recent applications in Leeds
Track live decisions near a postcode on the PlanWatch Leeds page.
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Planning permission in Leeds: common questions
Is it hard to get planning permission in Leeds?
On the latest official figures Leeds is somewhat stricter than the England average and in the stricter third of English authorities, approving 83.4% of the 3,649 applications it decided over 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025 against 87% for England.
What percentage of planning applications does Leeds approve or refuse?
Refusals are fairly frequent here: 83.4% approved and 16.6% refused — 3,043 granted and 606 refused of 3,649 decisions, with major schemes approved at 90.6% and householder and other work at 83.3%.
How quickly does Leeds decide planning applications?
On timing Leeds is about average on speed: 90.3% of applications were decided within the statutory period — eight weeks for most, thirteen for major schemes — against 90.6% nationally.
Is Leeds stricter than nearby councils?
Leeds's 83.4% approval rate makes it the 14th most approving of 15 authorities in Yorkshire and the Humber, against a 87.4% regional average. Neighbouring York approves 83.7% and Rotherham 79.9%.
Can I use Leeds's approval rate to predict whether my application will be approved?
No — the approval rate is a historic average across every application Leeds 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 Leeds 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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