Planning Approval Rate in St Albans
St Albans is close to the England average for planning permission: it approves 85.8% of applications and decides 88.8% of them within the statutory time limit, ranking #212 of 310 English authorities. This page sets out how hard it is to get planning permission in St Albans, how quickly the council decides, and how it compares with its neighbours — from official government figures plus the live planning activity PlanWatch tracks across St Albans City Council.
Source: official MHCLG planning statistics (PS2), 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025. Based on 1,375 decisions (1,180 granted, 195 refused).
How St Albans compares
| St Albans | 85.8% |
| East of England average | 86.1% |
| England average | 87% |
St Albans is 1.2 points stricter than the England average.
How hard is it to get planning permission in St Albans?
St Albans is in the stricter third of English authorities, granting 85.8% of the applications it decides (rank 212th of 310). That puts it close to the England average — 85.8% approved against an England average of 87%. Within East of England it is the 26th most approving of 45 local planning authorities, where the regional average is 86.1%. Refusals are fairly frequent here: 195 of its 1,375 decisions were refusals (14.2%). On the split by scale it is far tougher on major schemes than on small ones: 72.2% of major developments approved versus 87.8% of householder and other small-scale work, from 18 major decisions.
On timing it is about average on speed, deciding 88.8% of applications within the statutory period against 90.6% nationally. Its figures rest on one of the heavier caseloads of 1,375 decisions over 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025, where the typical English authority decides around 783. Among its East of England neighbours it sits between Braintree (86.4%, more approving) and Tendring (85.5%, stricter). For context in East of England, Norwich approves the most (95.6%) and Epping Forest the least (66.1%).
Compare St Albans with nearby councils
Approval rates for other authorities in East of England. See the full East of England league table.
Approval rate by development scale in St Albans
Live planning activity in St Albans City Council
From the latest planning data PlanWatch holds (to 25 August 2026). These are the records we've collected — the freshness the annual government table lacks.
What people apply for in St Albans City Council
Where planning activity concentrates in St Albans City Council
Recent applications in St Albans City Council
Track live decisions near a postcode on the PlanWatch St Albans page.
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Planning permission in St Albans: common questions
Is it hard to get planning permission in St Albans?
On the latest official figures St Albans is close to the England average and in the stricter third of English authorities, approving 85.8% of the 1,375 applications it decided over 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025 against 87% for England.
What percentage of planning applications does St Albans approve or refuse?
Refusals are fairly frequent here: 85.8% approved and 14.2% refused — 1,180 granted and 195 refused of 1,375 decisions, with major schemes approved at 72.2% and householder and other work at 87.8%.
How quickly does St Albans decide planning applications?
On timing St Albans is about average on speed: 88.8% of applications were decided within the statutory period — eight weeks for most, thirteen for major schemes — against 90.6% nationally.
Is St Albans stricter than nearby councils?
St Albans's 85.8% approval rate makes it the 26th most approving of 45 authorities in East of England, against a 86.1% regional average. Neighbouring Braintree approves 86.4% and Tendring 85.5%.
Can I use St Albans's approval rate to predict whether my application will be approved?
No — the approval rate is a historic average across every application St Albans 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 St Albans City 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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