Planning Approval Rate in Oxford
Oxford is close to the England average for planning permission: it approves 86.7% of applications and decides 89.1% of them within the statutory time limit, ranking #193 of 310 English authorities. This is the approval-rate record for Oxford: 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 Oxford planning applications by postcode on PlanWatch.
Source: official MHCLG planning statistics (PS2), 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025. Based on 1,132 decisions (981 granted, 151 refused).
How Oxford compares
| Oxford | 86.7% |
| South East average | 87.2% |
| England average | 87% |
Oxford is about average for England.
How hard is it to get planning permission in Oxford?
Oxford is a little stricter than the median English authority, granting 86.7% of the applications it decides (rank 193rd of 310). That puts it close to the England average — 86.7% approved against an England average of 87%. Within South East it is the 42nd most approving of 65 local planning authorities, where the regional average is 87.2%. Refusals are fairly frequent here: 151 of its 1,132 decisions were refusals (13.3%). On the split by scale it is somewhat more lenient on major schemes than on small ones: 97.1% of major developments approved versus 87% of householder and other small-scale work, from 34 major decisions.
On timing it is about average on speed, deciding 89.1% of applications within the statutory period against 90.6% nationally. Its figures rest on a mid-sized caseload of 1,132 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 Sevenoaks (87.1%, more approving) and Milton Keynes (86.6%, stricter). For context in South East, Fareham approves the most (98%) and Windsor and Maidenhead the least (68.9%).
Compare Oxford with nearby councils
Approval rates for other authorities in South East. See the full South East league table.
Approval rate by development scale in Oxford
Live planning activity in Oxford City Council
From the latest planning data PlanWatch holds (to 6 October 2026). These are the records we've collected — the freshness the annual government table lacks.
What people apply for in Oxford City Council
Where planning activity concentrates in Oxford City Council
Recent applications in Oxford City Council
This is a sample, not the full register. Search Oxford planning applications by postcode.
Embed this stat
Free to embed on your site with a credit link to PlanWatch:
Planning permission in Oxford: common questions
Is it hard to get planning permission in Oxford?
On the latest official figures Oxford is close to the England average and a little stricter than the median English authority, approving 86.7% of the 1,132 applications it decided over 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025 against 87% for England.
What percentage of planning applications does Oxford approve or refuse?
Refusals are fairly frequent here: 86.7% approved and 13.3% refused — 981 granted and 151 refused of 1,132 decisions, with major schemes approved at 97.1% and householder and other work at 87%.
How quickly does Oxford decide planning applications?
On timing Oxford is about average on speed: 89.1% of applications were decided within the statutory period — eight weeks for most, thirteen for major schemes — against 90.6% nationally.
Is Oxford stricter than nearby councils?
Oxford's 86.7% approval rate makes it the 42nd most approving of 65 authorities in South East, against a 87.2% regional average. Neighbouring Sevenoaks approves 87.1% and Milton Keynes 86.6%.
Can I use Oxford's approval rate to predict whether my application will be approved?
No — the approval rate is a historic average across every application Oxford 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 Oxford City 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.
Download the data (JSON) · CSV · National league table · South East league table
Track live decisions in Oxford
Set a free alert and get emailed when a planning application near you is decided.
Search Oxford planning applications by postcodeRelated: Oxford planning applications