Planning Approval Rate in Spelthorne
Spelthorne is somewhat stricter than the England average for planning permission: it approves 80.5% of applications and decides 97.6% of them within the statutory time limit, ranking #272 of 310 English authorities. This is the approval-rate record for Spelthorne: 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 Spelthorne planning applications by postcode on PlanWatch.
Source: official MHCLG planning statistics (PS2), 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025. Based on 668 decisions (538 granted, 130 refused).
How Spelthorne compares
| Spelthorne | 80.5% |
| South East average | 87.2% |
| England average | 87% |
Spelthorne is 6.5 points stricter than the England average.
How hard is it to get planning permission in Spelthorne?
Spelthorne is in the stricter third of English authorities, granting 80.5% of the applications it decides (rank 272nd of 310). That puts it somewhat stricter than the England average — 80.5% approved against an England average of 87%. Within South East it is the 58th most approving of 65 local planning authorities, where the regional average is 87.2%. Refusals are fairly frequent here: 130 of its 668 decisions were refusals (19.5%). On the split by scale it is somewhat tougher on major schemes than on small ones: 72.7% of major developments approved versus 85.1% of householder and other small-scale work, from 11 major decisions.
On timing it is among the faster authorities, deciding 97.6% of applications within the statutory period against 90.6% nationally. Its figures rest on a mid-sized caseload of 668 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 Crawley (80.9%, more approving) and Dartford (79.7%, stricter). For context in South East, Fareham approves the most (98%) and Windsor and Maidenhead the least (68.9%).
Compare Spelthorne with nearby councils
Approval rates for other authorities in South East. See the full South East league table.
Approval rate by development scale in Spelthorne
Live planning activity in Spelthorne Borough Council
From the latest planning data PlanWatch holds (to 8 October 2026). These are the records we've collected — the freshness the annual government table lacks.
What people apply for in Spelthorne Borough Council
Where planning activity concentrates in Spelthorne Borough Council
Recent applications in Spelthorne Borough Council
This is a sample, not the full register. Search Spelthorne planning applications by postcode.
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Planning permission in Spelthorne: common questions
Is it hard to get planning permission in Spelthorne?
On the latest official figures Spelthorne is somewhat stricter than the England average and in the stricter third of English authorities, approving 80.5% of the 668 applications it decided over 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025 against 87% for England.
What percentage of planning applications does Spelthorne approve or refuse?
Refusals are fairly frequent here: 80.5% approved and 19.5% refused — 538 granted and 130 refused of 668 decisions, with major schemes approved at 72.7% and householder and other work at 85.1%.
How quickly does Spelthorne decide planning applications?
On timing Spelthorne is among the faster authorities: 97.6% of applications were decided within the statutory period — eight weeks for most, thirteen for major schemes — against 90.6% nationally.
Is Spelthorne stricter than nearby councils?
Spelthorne's 80.5% approval rate makes it the 58th most approving of 65 authorities in South East, against a 87.2% regional average. Neighbouring Crawley approves 80.9% and Dartford 79.7%.
Can I use Spelthorne's approval rate to predict whether my application will be approved?
No — the approval rate is a historic average across every application Spelthorne 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 Spelthorne 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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