Planning Approval Rate in Malvern Hills
Malvern Hills is somewhat stricter than the England average for planning permission: it approves 82.8% of applications and decides 91.5% of them within the statutory time limit, ranking #251 of 310 English authorities. This page sets out how hard it is to get planning permission in Malvern Hills, how quickly the council decides, and how it compares with its neighbours — from official government figures plus the live planning activity PlanWatch tracks across Malvern Hills District Council.
Source: official MHCLG planning statistics (PS2), 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025. Based on 720 decisions (596 granted, 124 refused).
How Malvern Hills compares
| Malvern Hills | 82.8% |
| West Midlands average | 87.8% |
| England average | 87% |
Malvern Hills is 4.2 points stricter than the England average.
How hard is it to get planning permission in Malvern Hills?
Malvern Hills is in the stricter third of English authorities, granting 82.8% of the applications it decides (rank 251st of 310). That puts it somewhat stricter than the England average — 82.8% approved against an England average of 87%. Within West Midlands it is the 27th most approving of 30 local planning authorities, where the regional average is 87.8%. Refusals are fairly frequent here: 124 of its 720 decisions were refusals (17.2%). On the split by scale it is somewhat tougher on major schemes than on small ones: 82.6% of major developments approved versus 87.9% of householder and other small-scale work, from 23 major decisions.
On timing it is about average on speed, deciding 91.5% of applications within the statutory period against 90.6% nationally. Its figures rest on a mid-sized caseload of 720 decisions over 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025, where the typical English authority decides around 783. Among its West Midlands neighbours it sits between Dudley (83.2%, more approving) and Birmingham (82.6%, stricter). For context in West Midlands, Redditch approves the most (96.2%) and Lichfield the least (79.7%).
Compare Malvern Hills with nearby councils
Approval rates for other authorities in West Midlands. See the full West Midlands league table.
Approval rate by development scale in Malvern Hills
Live planning activity in Malvern Hills District Council
From the latest planning data PlanWatch holds (to 10 July 2026). These are the records we've collected — the freshness the annual government table lacks.
What people apply for in Malvern Hills District Council
Where planning activity concentrates in Malvern Hills District Council
Recent applications in Malvern Hills District Council
Track live decisions near a postcode on the PlanWatch Malvern Hills page.
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Planning permission in Malvern Hills: common questions
Is it hard to get planning permission in Malvern Hills?
On the latest official figures Malvern Hills is somewhat stricter than the England average and in the stricter third of English authorities, approving 82.8% of the 720 applications it decided over 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025 against 87% for England.
What percentage of planning applications does Malvern Hills approve or refuse?
Refusals are fairly frequent here: 82.8% approved and 17.2% refused — 596 granted and 124 refused of 720 decisions, with major schemes approved at 82.6% and householder and other work at 87.9%.
How quickly does Malvern Hills decide planning applications?
On timing Malvern Hills is about average on speed: 91.5% of applications were decided within the statutory period — eight weeks for most, thirteen for major schemes — against 90.6% nationally.
Is Malvern Hills stricter than nearby councils?
Malvern Hills's 82.8% approval rate makes it the 27th most approving of 30 authorities in West Midlands, against a 87.8% regional average. Neighbouring Dudley approves 83.2% and Birmingham 82.6%.
Can I use Malvern Hills's approval rate to predict whether my application will be approved?
No — the approval rate is a historic average across every application Malvern Hills 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 Malvern Hills District 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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