Planning Approval Rate in Reading
Reading is close to the England average for planning permission: it approves 84.1% of applications and decides 85.7% of them within the statutory time limit, ranking #237 of 310 English authorities. This page sets out how hard it is to get planning permission in Reading, how quickly the council decides, and how it compares with its neighbours — from official government figures plus the live planning activity PlanWatch tracks across Reading Borough Council.
Source: official MHCLG planning statistics (PS2), 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025. Based on 635 decisions (534 granted, 101 refused).
How Reading compares
| Reading | 84.1% |
| South East average | 87.2% |
| England average | 87% |
Reading is 2.9 points stricter than the England average.
How hard is it to get planning permission in Reading?
Reading is in the stricter third of English authorities, granting 84.1% of the applications it decides (rank 237th of 310). That puts it close to the England average — 84.1% approved against an England average of 87%. Within South East it is the 51st most approving of 65 local planning authorities, where the regional average is 87.2%. Refusals are fairly frequent here: 101 of its 635 decisions were refusals (15.9%). On the split by scale it is far tougher on major schemes than on small ones: 66.7% of major developments approved versus 87.1% of householder and other small-scale work, from 12 major decisions.
On timing it is a little slower than average, deciding 85.7% of applications within the statutory period against 90.6% nationally. Its figures rest on a mid-sized caseload of 635 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 Surrey Heath (84.3%, more approving) and Buckinghamshire (83.5%, stricter). For context in South East, Fareham approves the most (98%) and Windsor and Maidenhead the least (68.9%).
Compare Reading with nearby councils
Approval rates for other authorities in South East. See the full South East league table.
Approval rate by development scale in Reading
Live planning activity in Reading Borough Council
From the latest planning data PlanWatch holds (to 10 September 2026). These are the records we've collected — the freshness the annual government table lacks.
What people apply for in Reading Borough Council
Where planning activity concentrates in Reading Borough Council
Recent applications in Reading Borough Council
Track live decisions near a postcode on the PlanWatch Reading page.
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Planning permission in Reading: common questions
Is it hard to get planning permission in Reading?
On the latest official figures Reading is close to the England average and in the stricter third of English authorities, approving 84.1% of the 635 applications it decided over 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025 against 87% for England.
What percentage of planning applications does Reading approve or refuse?
Refusals are fairly frequent here: 84.1% approved and 15.9% refused — 534 granted and 101 refused of 635 decisions, with major schemes approved at 66.7% and householder and other work at 87.1%.
How quickly does Reading decide planning applications?
On timing Reading is a little slower than average: 85.7% of applications were decided within the statutory period — eight weeks for most, thirteen for major schemes — against 90.6% nationally.
Is Reading stricter than nearby councils?
Reading's 84.1% approval rate makes it the 51st most approving of 65 authorities in South East, against a 87.2% regional average. Neighbouring Surrey Heath approves 84.3% and Buckinghamshire 83.5%.
Can I use Reading's approval rate to predict whether my application will be approved?
No — the approval rate is a historic average across every application Reading 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 Reading Borough 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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