Planning Approval Rate in Rotherham
Rotherham is somewhat stricter than the England average for planning permission: it approves 79.9% of applications and decides 100% of them within the statutory time limit, ranking #277 of 310 English authorities. This page sets out how hard it is to get planning permission in Rotherham, how quickly the council decides, and how it compares with its neighbours — from official government figures plus the live planning activity PlanWatch tracks across Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council.
Source: official MHCLG planning statistics (PS2), 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025. Based on 777 decisions (621 granted, 156 refused).
How Rotherham compares
| Rotherham | 79.9% |
| Yorkshire and the Humber average | 87.4% |
| England average | 87% |
Rotherham is 7.1 points stricter than the England average.
How hard is it to get planning permission in Rotherham?
Rotherham is in the stricter third of English authorities, granting 79.9% of the applications it decides (rank 277th of 310). That puts it somewhat stricter than the England average — 79.9% approved against an England average of 87%. Within Yorkshire and the Humber it is the strictest of 15 local planning authorities, where the regional average is 87.4%. Refusals are fairly frequent here: 156 of its 777 decisions were refusals (20.1%). On the split by scale it is strikingly more lenient on major schemes than on small ones: 100% of major developments approved versus 73.9% of householder and other small-scale work, from 43 major decisions.
On timing it is among the faster authorities, deciding 100% of applications within the statutory period against 90.6% nationally. Its figures rest on a mid-sized caseload of 777 decisions over 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025, where the typical English authority decides around 783. It is stricter than its nearest Yorkshire and the Humber peer by rank, Leeds (83.4%). At the other end of Yorkshire and the Humber, North East Lincolnshire is the most approving, at 95.3%.
Compare Rotherham 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 Rotherham
Live planning activity in Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council
From the latest planning data PlanWatch holds (to 31 July 2026). These are the records we've collected — the freshness the annual government table lacks.
What people apply for in Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council
Where planning activity concentrates in Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council
Recent applications in Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council
Track live decisions near a postcode on the PlanWatch Rotherham page.
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Planning permission in Rotherham: common questions
Is it hard to get planning permission in Rotherham?
On the latest official figures Rotherham is somewhat stricter than the England average and in the stricter third of English authorities, approving 79.9% of the 777 applications it decided over 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025 against 87% for England.
What percentage of planning applications does Rotherham approve or refuse?
Refusals are fairly frequent here: 79.9% approved and 20.1% refused — 621 granted and 156 refused of 777 decisions, with major schemes approved at 100% and householder and other work at 73.9%.
How quickly does Rotherham decide planning applications?
On timing Rotherham is among the faster authorities: 100% of applications were decided within the statutory period — eight weeks for most, thirteen for major schemes — against 90.6% nationally.
Is Rotherham stricter than nearby councils?
Rotherham's 79.9% approval rate makes it the strictest of 15 authorities in Yorkshire and the Humber, against a 87.4% regional average. Neighbouring Leeds approves 83.4%.
Can I use Rotherham's approval rate to predict whether my application will be approved?
No — the approval rate is a historic average across every application Rotherham 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 Rotherham Metropolitan 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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