Planning Approval Rate in Surrey Heath
Surrey Heath is close to the England average for planning permission: it approves 84.3% of applications and decides 88% of them within the statutory time limit, ranking #236 of 310 English authorities. This page sets out how hard it is to get planning permission in Surrey Heath, how quickly the council decides, and how it compares with its neighbours — from official government figures plus the live planning activity PlanWatch tracks across Surrey Heath Borough Council.
Source: official MHCLG planning statistics (PS2), 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025. Based on 632 decisions (533 granted, 99 refused).
How Surrey Heath compares
| Surrey Heath | 84.3% |
| South East average | 87.2% |
| England average | 87% |
Surrey Heath is 2.7 points stricter than the England average.
How hard is it to get planning permission in Surrey Heath?
Surrey Heath is in the stricter third of English authorities, granting 84.3% of the applications it decides (rank 236th of 310). That puts it close to the England average — 84.3% approved against an England average of 87%. Within South East it is the 50th most approving of 65 local planning authorities, where the regional average is 87.2%. Refusals are fairly frequent here: 99 of its 632 decisions were refusals (15.7%). On the split by scale it is about as likely to approve major schemes as small ones: 87.5% of major developments approved versus 86.4% of householder and other small-scale work, from 16 major decisions.
On timing it is a little slower than average, deciding 88% of applications within the statutory period against 90.6% nationally. Its figures rest on a mid-sized caseload of 632 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 Wealden (84.4%, more approving) and Reading (84.1%, stricter). For context in South East, Fareham approves the most (98%) and Windsor and Maidenhead the least (68.9%).
Compare Surrey Heath with nearby councils
Approval rates for other authorities in South East. See the full South East league table.
Approval rate by development scale in Surrey Heath
Live planning activity in Surrey Heath Borough Council
From the latest planning data PlanWatch holds (to 24 August 2026). These are the records we've collected — the freshness the annual government table lacks.
What people apply for in Surrey Heath Borough Council
Where planning activity concentrates in Surrey Heath Borough Council
Recent applications in Surrey Heath Borough Council
Track live decisions near a postcode on the PlanWatch Surrey Heath page.
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Planning permission in Surrey Heath: common questions
Is it hard to get planning permission in Surrey Heath?
On the latest official figures Surrey Heath is close to the England average and in the stricter third of English authorities, approving 84.3% of the 632 applications it decided over 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025 against 87% for England.
What percentage of planning applications does Surrey Heath approve or refuse?
Refusals are fairly frequent here: 84.3% approved and 15.7% refused — 533 granted and 99 refused of 632 decisions, with major schemes approved at 87.5% and householder and other work at 86.4%.
How quickly does Surrey Heath decide planning applications?
On timing Surrey Heath is a little slower than average: 88% of applications were decided within the statutory period — eight weeks for most, thirteen for major schemes — against 90.6% nationally.
Is Surrey Heath stricter than nearby councils?
Surrey Heath's 84.3% approval rate makes it the 50th most approving of 65 authorities in South East, against a 87.2% regional average. Neighbouring Wealden approves 84.4% and Reading 84.1%.
Can I use Surrey Heath's approval rate to predict whether my application will be approved?
No — the approval rate is a historic average across every application Surrey Heath 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 Surrey Heath 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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