Planning Approval Rate in Portsmouth
Portsmouth is close to the England average for planning permission: it approves 87.2% of applications and decides 95.8% of them within the statutory time limit, ranking #180 of 310 English authorities. This page sets out how hard it is to get planning permission in Portsmouth, how quickly the council decides, and how it compares with its neighbours — from official government figures plus the live planning activity PlanWatch tracks across Portsmouth.
Source: official MHCLG planning statistics (PS2), 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025. Based on 624 decisions (544 granted, 80 refused).
How Portsmouth compares
| Portsmouth | 87.2% |
| South East average | 87.2% |
| England average | 87% |
Portsmouth is about average for England.
How hard is it to get planning permission in Portsmouth?
Portsmouth is a little stricter than the median English authority, granting 87.2% of the applications it decides (rank 180th of 310). That puts it close to the England average — 87.2% approved against an England average of 87%. Within South East it is the 40th most approving of 65 local planning authorities, where the regional average is 87.2%. Refusals are fairly frequent here: 80 of its 624 decisions were refusals (12.8%). On the split by scale it is somewhat tougher on major schemes than on small ones: 84% of major developments approved versus 88.6% of householder and other small-scale work, from 25 major decisions.
On timing it is a little faster than average, deciding 95.8% of applications within the statutory period against 90.6% nationally. Its figures rest on a mid-sized caseload of 624 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 Ashford (87.2%, more approving) and Sevenoaks (87.1%, stricter). For context in South East, Fareham approves the most (98%) and Windsor and Maidenhead the least (68.9%).
Compare Portsmouth with nearby councils
Approval rates for other authorities in South East. See the full South East league table.
Approval rate by development scale in Portsmouth
Live planning activity in Portsmouth
From the latest planning data PlanWatch holds (to 28 August 2026). These are the records we've collected — the freshness the annual government table lacks.
What people apply for in Portsmouth
Where planning activity concentrates in Portsmouth
Recent applications in Portsmouth
Track live decisions near a postcode on the PlanWatch Portsmouth page.
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Planning permission in Portsmouth: common questions
Is it hard to get planning permission in Portsmouth?
On the latest official figures Portsmouth is close to the England average and a little stricter than the median English authority, approving 87.2% of the 624 applications it decided over 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025 against 87% for England.
What percentage of planning applications does Portsmouth approve or refuse?
Refusals are fairly frequent here: 87.2% approved and 12.8% refused — 544 granted and 80 refused of 624 decisions, with major schemes approved at 84% and householder and other work at 88.6%.
How quickly does Portsmouth decide planning applications?
On timing Portsmouth is a little faster than average: 95.8% of applications were decided within the statutory period — eight weeks for most, thirteen for major schemes — against 90.6% nationally.
Is Portsmouth stricter than nearby councils?
Portsmouth's 87.2% approval rate makes it the 40th most approving of 65 authorities in South East, against a 87.2% regional average. Neighbouring Ashford approves 87.2% and Sevenoaks 87.1%.
Can I use Portsmouth's approval rate to predict whether my application will be approved?
No — the approval rate is a historic average across every application Portsmouth 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 Portsmouth 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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