Planning Approval Rate in Welwyn Hatfield
Welwyn Hatfield is close to the England average for planning permission: it approves 87.6% of applications and decides 95.1% of them within the statutory time limit, ranking #172 of 310 English authorities. This is the approval-rate record for Welwyn Hatfield: 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 Welwyn Hatfield planning applications by postcode on PlanWatch.
Source: official MHCLG planning statistics (PS2), 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025. Based on 630 decisions (552 granted, 78 refused).
How Welwyn Hatfield compares
| Welwyn Hatfield | 87.6% |
| East of England average | 86.1% |
| England average | 87% |
Welwyn Hatfield is about average for England.
How hard is it to get planning permission in Welwyn Hatfield?
Welwyn Hatfield is a little stricter than the median English authority, granting 87.6% of the applications it decides (rank 172nd of 310). That puts it close to the England average — 87.6% approved against an England average of 87%. Within East of England it is the 19th most approving of 45 local planning authorities, where the regional average is 86.1%. Refusals are fairly frequent here: 78 of its 630 decisions were refusals (12.4%). On the split by scale it is about as likely to approve major schemes as small ones: 90.9% of major developments approved versus 87.1% of householder and other small-scale work, from 22 major decisions.
On timing it is a little faster than average, deciding 95.1% of applications within the statutory period against 90.6% nationally. Its figures rest on a mid-sized caseload of 630 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 Mid Suffolk (88.2%, more approving) and Chelmsford (87.1%, stricter). For context in East of England, Norwich approves the most (95.6%) and Epping Forest the least (66.1%).
Compare Welwyn Hatfield 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 Welwyn Hatfield
Live planning activity in Welwyn Hatfield Council
From the latest planning data PlanWatch holds (to 7 October 2026). These are the records we've collected — the freshness the annual government table lacks.
What people apply for in Welwyn Hatfield Council
Where planning activity concentrates in Welwyn Hatfield Council
Recent applications in Welwyn Hatfield Council
This is a sample, not the full register. Search Welwyn Hatfield planning applications by postcode.
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Planning permission in Welwyn Hatfield: common questions
Is it hard to get planning permission in Welwyn Hatfield?
On the latest official figures Welwyn Hatfield is close to the England average and a little stricter than the median English authority, approving 87.6% of the 630 applications it decided over 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025 against 87% for England.
What percentage of planning applications does Welwyn Hatfield approve or refuse?
Refusals are fairly frequent here: 87.6% approved and 12.4% refused — 552 granted and 78 refused of 630 decisions, with major schemes approved at 90.9% and householder and other work at 87.1%.
How quickly does Welwyn Hatfield decide planning applications?
On timing Welwyn Hatfield is a little faster than average: 95.1% of applications were decided within the statutory period — eight weeks for most, thirteen for major schemes — against 90.6% nationally.
Is Welwyn Hatfield stricter than nearby councils?
Welwyn Hatfield's 87.6% approval rate makes it the 19th most approving of 45 authorities in East of England, against a 86.1% regional average. Neighbouring Mid Suffolk approves 88.2% and Chelmsford 87.1%.
Can I use Welwyn Hatfield's approval rate to predict whether my application will be approved?
No — the approval rate is a historic average across every application Welwyn Hatfield 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 Welwyn Hatfield 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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