Planning Approval Rate in Woking
Woking is somewhat stricter than the England average for planning permission: it approves 79.5% of applications and decides 83.4% of them within the statutory time limit, ranking #282 of 310 English authorities. This page sets out how hard it is to get planning permission in Woking, how quickly the council decides, and how it compares with its neighbours — from official government figures plus the live planning activity PlanWatch tracks across Woking Borough Council.
Source: official MHCLG planning statistics (PS2), 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025. Based on 748 decisions (595 granted, 153 refused).
How Woking compares
| Woking | 79.5% |
| South East average | 87.2% |
| England average | 87% |
Woking is 7.5 points stricter than the England average.
How hard is it to get planning permission in Woking?
Woking is among the ten per cent strictest authorities in England, granting 79.5% of the applications it decides (rank 282nd of 310). That puts it somewhat stricter than the England average — 79.5% approved against an England average of 87%. Within South East it is the 60th most approving of 65 local planning authorities, where the regional average is 87.2%. Refusals are fairly frequent here: 153 of its 748 decisions were refusals (20.5%). On the split by scale it is somewhat more lenient on major schemes than on small ones: 90% of major developments approved versus 81.8% of householder and other small-scale work, from 10 major decisions.
On timing it is among the slower authorities, deciding 83.4% of applications within the statutory period against 90.6% nationally. Its figures rest on a mid-sized caseload of 748 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 Dartford (79.7%, more approving) and Slough (77.1%, stricter). For context in South East, Fareham approves the most (98%) and Windsor and Maidenhead the least (68.9%).
Compare Woking with nearby councils
Approval rates for other authorities in South East. See the full South East league table.
Approval rate by development scale in Woking
Live planning activity in Woking 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 Woking Borough Council
Where planning activity concentrates in Woking Borough Council
Recent applications in Woking Borough Council
Track live decisions near a postcode on the PlanWatch Woking page.
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Planning permission in Woking: common questions
Is it hard to get planning permission in Woking?
On the latest official figures Woking is somewhat stricter than the England average and among the ten per cent strictest authorities in England, approving 79.5% of the 748 applications it decided over 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025 against 87% for England.
What percentage of planning applications does Woking approve or refuse?
Refusals are fairly frequent here: 79.5% approved and 20.5% refused — 595 granted and 153 refused of 748 decisions, with major schemes approved at 90% and householder and other work at 81.8%.
How quickly does Woking decide planning applications?
On timing Woking is among the slower authorities: 83.4% of applications were decided within the statutory period — eight weeks for most, thirteen for major schemes — against 90.6% nationally.
Is Woking stricter than nearby councils?
Woking's 79.5% approval rate makes it the 60th most approving of 65 authorities in South East, against a 87.2% regional average. Neighbouring Dartford approves 79.7% and Slough 77.1%.
Can I use Woking's approval rate to predict whether my application will be approved?
No — the approval rate is a historic average across every application Woking 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 Woking 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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