Data published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has revealed the number of planning decisions made in England fell by 4% in Q4 2025.
According to the data, decisions were made on 72,700 applications in England in Q4, of which 63,000 were granted, down 3% on the previous quarter.
The number of applications submitted also fell 4% to around 76,300 applications. The majority of applications (91%) were decided within 13 weeks, unchanged from Q4 2024.
Of the approved Q4 applications, 7,300 were residential applications, down 1% compared to the same period a year before. Around 1,500 approved applications were for commercial developments, down 3% year on year.
The Q4 figures bring the total number of granted decisions across the year to 261,700, down 4% on 2024, while 28,400 were residential applications, down 6% year on year.
Meanwhile, research company Glenigan this week published data revealing that UK construction starts plummeted 39% in the three months to the end of February 2026.
In its Construction Review, Glenigan revealed that project starts in the period were down 26% year on year. Detailed planning approvals fell 15% on the preceding three months and were down 16% year on year.
Neil Leitch, managing director of development finance at Hampshire Trust Bank, said: “This decrease underlines the continued pressure in the planning system. Delays have become embedded in the development process, acting as a structural constraint on how quickly schemes can progress and ultimately how many homes are delivered.
“The issue is no longer simply how long decisions take, but how many schemes remain viable by the time they receive approval. Longer programmes do not just delay delivery, they erode viability by increasing costs, compressing margins and reducing the flexibility developers have to absorb further cost movement once delivery begins.”
Paul Burrell, head of planning at Pegasus Group, said the figures “confirm what we’ve known for some time” that “planning application activity remains pretty flat”
He added: “The planning system is still under immense pressure, and without meaningful intervention, it will hold back the UK’s growth ambitions for delivering housing and infrastructure. However, looking ahead at the government’s upcoming interventions, I believe there is reason for some optimism.
“The upcoming update to the National Planning Policy Framework, which has unfortunately been delayed into the summer, should set the stage for a more strategically aligned planning system to deliver growth, with a number of policy interventions that strengthen the planning balance in favour of development.”
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