Planning Approval Rate in Worcester
Worcester is close to the England average for planning permission: it approves 85.5% of applications and decides 97.8% of them within the statutory time limit, ranking #220 of 310 English authorities. This page sets out how hard it is to get planning permission in Worcester, how quickly the council decides, and how it compares with its neighbours — from official government figures plus the live planning activity PlanWatch tracks across Worcester City Council.
Source: official MHCLG planning statistics (PS2), 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025. Based on 406 decisions (347 granted, 59 refused).
How Worcester compares
| Worcester | 85.5% |
| West Midlands average | 87.8% |
| England average | 87% |
Worcester is 1.5 points stricter than the England average.
How hard is it to get planning permission in Worcester?
Worcester is in the stricter third of English authorities, granting 85.5% of the applications it decides (rank 220th of 310). That puts it close to the England average — 85.5% approved against an England average of 87%. Within West Midlands it is the 25th most approving of 30 local planning authorities, where the regional average is 87.8%. Refusals are fairly frequent here: 59 of its 406 decisions were refusals (14.5%). On the split by scale it is somewhat more lenient on major schemes than on small ones: 100% of major developments approved versus 89.4% of householder and other small-scale work, from 6 major decisions.
On timing it is among the faster authorities, deciding 97.8% of applications within the statutory period against 90.6% nationally. Its figures rest on a relatively light caseload of 406 decisions over 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025, where the typical English authority decides around 783. Among its West Midlands neighbours it sits between Coventry (85.6%, more approving) and Dudley (83.2%, stricter). For context in West Midlands, Redditch approves the most (96.2%) and Lichfield the least (79.7%).
Compare Worcester with nearby councils
Approval rates for other authorities in West Midlands. See the full West Midlands league table.
Approval rate by development scale in Worcester
Live planning activity in Worcester City Council
From the latest planning data PlanWatch holds (to 6 August 2026). These are the records we've collected — the freshness the annual government table lacks.
What people apply for in Worcester City Council
Where planning activity concentrates in Worcester City Council
Recent applications in Worcester City Council
Track live decisions near a postcode on the PlanWatch Worcester page.
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Planning permission in Worcester: common questions
Is it hard to get planning permission in Worcester?
On the latest official figures Worcester is close to the England average and in the stricter third of English authorities, approving 85.5% of the 406 applications it decided over 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025 against 87% for England.
What percentage of planning applications does Worcester approve or refuse?
Refusals are fairly frequent here: 85.5% approved and 14.5% refused — 347 granted and 59 refused of 406 decisions, with major schemes approved at 100% and householder and other work at 89.4%.
How quickly does Worcester decide planning applications?
On timing Worcester is among the faster authorities: 97.8% of applications were decided within the statutory period — eight weeks for most, thirteen for major schemes — against 90.6% nationally.
Is Worcester stricter than nearby councils?
Worcester's 85.5% approval rate makes it the 25th most approving of 30 authorities in West Midlands, against a 87.8% regional average. Neighbouring Coventry approves 85.6% and Dudley 83.2%.
Can I use Worcester's approval rate to predict whether my application will be approved?
No — the approval rate is a historic average across every application Worcester 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 Worcester 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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