Planning Approval Rate in Solihull
Solihull is somewhat more approving than the England average for planning permission: it approves 94.1% of applications and decides 86.1% of them within the statutory time limit, ranking #39 of 310 English authorities. This is the approval-rate record for Solihull: 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 Solihull planning applications by postcode on PlanWatch.
Source: official MHCLG planning statistics (PS2), 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025. Based on 1,185 decisions (1,115 granted, 70 refused).
How Solihull compares
| Solihull | 94.1% |
| West Midlands average | 87.8% |
| England average | 87% |
Solihull is 7.1 points easier than the England average.
How hard is it to get planning permission in Solihull?
Solihull is in the more approving third of English authorities, granting 94.1% of the applications it decides (rank 39th of 310). That puts it somewhat more approving than the England average — 94.1% approved against an England average of 87%. Within West Midlands it is the 5th most approving of 30 local planning authorities, where the regional average is 87.8%. Refusals are uncommon here: 70 of its 1,185 decisions were refusals (5.9%). On the split by scale it is about as likely to approve major schemes as small ones: 95.2% of major developments approved versus 94.2% of householder and other small-scale work, from 21 major decisions.
On timing it is a little slower than average, deciding 86.1% of applications within the statutory period against 90.6% nationally. Its figures rest on a mid-sized caseload of 1,185 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 Bromsgrove (94.5%, more approving) and Herefordshire, County of (93.5%, stricter). For context in West Midlands, Redditch approves the most (96.2%) and Lichfield the least (79.7%).
Compare Solihull with nearby councils
Approval rates for other authorities in West Midlands. See the full West Midlands league table.
Approval rate by development scale in Solihull
Live planning activity in Solihull
From the latest planning data PlanWatch holds (to 12 October 2026). These are the records we've collected — the freshness the annual government table lacks.
What people apply for in Solihull
Where planning activity concentrates in Solihull
Recent applications in Solihull
This is a sample, not the full register. Search Solihull planning applications by postcode.
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Planning permission in Solihull: common questions
Is it hard to get planning permission in Solihull?
On the latest official figures Solihull is somewhat more approving than the England average and in the more approving third of English authorities, approving 94.1% of the 1,185 applications it decided over 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025 against 87% for England.
What percentage of planning applications does Solihull approve or refuse?
Refusals are uncommon here: 94.1% approved and 5.9% refused — 1,115 granted and 70 refused of 1,185 decisions, with major schemes approved at 95.2% and householder and other work at 94.2%.
How quickly does Solihull decide planning applications?
On timing Solihull is a little slower than average: 86.1% of applications were decided within the statutory period — eight weeks for most, thirteen for major schemes — against 90.6% nationally.
Is Solihull stricter than nearby councils?
Solihull's 94.1% approval rate makes it the 5th most approving of 30 authorities in West Midlands, against a 87.8% regional average. Neighbouring Bromsgrove approves 94.5% and Herefordshire, County of 93.5%.
Can I use Solihull's approval rate to predict whether my application will be approved?
No — the approval rate is a historic average across every application Solihull 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 Solihull 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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