Planning Approval Rate in Windsor and Maidenhead
Windsor and Maidenhead is markedly stricter than the typical English council for planning permission: it approves 68.9% of applications and decides 92.4% of them within the statutory time limit, ranking #307 of 310 English authorities. This page sets out how hard it is to get planning permission in Windsor and Maidenhead, how quickly the council decides, and how it compares with its neighbours — from official government figures plus the live planning activity PlanWatch tracks across Windsor and Maidenhead.
Source: official MHCLG planning statistics (PS2), 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025. Based on 1,576 decisions (1,086 granted, 490 refused).
How Windsor and Maidenhead compares
| Windsor and Maidenhead | 68.9% |
| South East average | 87.2% |
| England average | 87% |
Windsor and Maidenhead is 18.1 points stricter than the England average.
How hard is it to get planning permission in Windsor and Maidenhead?
Windsor and Maidenhead is among the ten per cent strictest authorities in England, granting 68.9% of the applications it decides (rank 307th of 310). That puts it markedly stricter than the typical English council — 68.9% approved against an England average of 87%. Within South East it is the strictest of 65 local planning authorities, where the regional average is 87.2%. Refusals are common here: 490 of its 1,576 decisions were refusals (31.1%). On the split by scale it is somewhat more lenient on major schemes than on small ones: 84.2% of major developments approved versus 72.2% of householder and other small-scale work, from 38 major decisions.
On timing it is about average on speed, deciding 92.4% of applications within the statutory period against 90.6% nationally. Its figures rest on one of the heavier caseloads of 1,576 decisions over 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025, where the typical English authority decides around 783. It is stricter than its nearest South East peer by rank, Gravesham (71.6%). At the other end of South East, Fareham is the most approving, at 98%.
Compare Windsor and Maidenhead with nearby councils
Approval rates for other authorities in South East. See the full South East league table.
Approval rate by development scale in Windsor and Maidenhead
Live planning activity in Windsor and Maidenhead
From the latest planning data PlanWatch holds (to 4 September 2026). These are the records we've collected — the freshness the annual government table lacks.
What people apply for in Windsor and Maidenhead
Where planning activity concentrates in Windsor and Maidenhead
Recent applications in Windsor and Maidenhead
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Planning permission in Windsor and Maidenhead: common questions
Is it hard to get planning permission in Windsor and Maidenhead?
On the latest official figures Windsor and Maidenhead is markedly stricter than the typical English council and among the ten per cent strictest authorities in England, approving 68.9% of the 1,576 applications it decided over 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025 against 87% for England.
What percentage of planning applications does Windsor and Maidenhead approve or refuse?
Refusals are common here: 68.9% approved and 31.1% refused — 1,086 granted and 490 refused of 1,576 decisions, with major schemes approved at 84.2% and householder and other work at 72.2%.
How quickly does Windsor and Maidenhead decide planning applications?
On timing Windsor and Maidenhead is about average on speed: 92.4% of applications were decided within the statutory period — eight weeks for most, thirteen for major schemes — against 90.6% nationally.
Is Windsor and Maidenhead stricter than nearby councils?
Windsor and Maidenhead's 68.9% approval rate makes it the strictest of 65 authorities in South East, against a 87.2% regional average. Neighbouring Gravesham approves 71.6%.
Can I use Windsor and Maidenhead's approval rate to predict whether my application will be approved?
No — the approval rate is a historic average across every application Windsor and Maidenhead 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 Windsor and Maidenhead 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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