Most planning permission advice treats your council as the unit of analysis. "Leeds approves 86% of applications." "Tower Hamlets is one of the toughest." These numbers are useful as a starting point — but they hide enormous variation within each council.
When we analysed 2,500,000+ planning decisions at the ward level, we found something striking: your specific neighbourhood matters more than your council.
The Ward-Level Gap
Every council is made up of wards — typically 15 to 60 distinct areas, each with its own character, housing stock, and planning history. And the approval rates between wards in the same council can differ dramatically.
That means two homeowners in the same borough, paying council tax to the same authority, assessed by the same planning team, can face fundamentally different odds — simply because of which ward they live in.
A ward with a 95% approval rate is essentially a rubber stamp for reasonable applications. A ward with a 75% approval rate means one in four applications is refused — a genuine factor that should change how you approach your project.
Check your ward's approval rate →
What Creates Ward-Level Variation?
The differences aren't random. They're driven by real characteristics of each area:
Conservation Areas
Wards with conservation areas have stricter design requirements and fewer permitted development rights. Refusal rates in conservation areas are 2–3x higher than in standard residential areas. A ward that's mostly conservation area will have a noticeably lower overall approval rate.
Housing Density
Dense urban wards — terraced housing, smaller plots, closer neighbours — generate more contentious applications. Every extension has a greater impact on someone. Officers are more cautious about overlooking, loss of light, and overdevelopment in tight-knit streets.
Housing Stock
A ward of large detached houses on generous plots will have different planning dynamics than a ward of Victorian terraces. The detached houses have more room to extend without impacting neighbours. The terraces have less room for error.
Local Precedent
This is the self-reinforcing factor. Wards where extensions have historically been approved develop a culture of approval — officers have precedent to follow, neighbours are accustomed to building work, and the streetscape has already evolved. Wards where early applications were refused create the opposite dynamic.
The London Example
London boroughs illustrate this perfectly. We ranked all 33 boroughs by approval rate, and the spread is significant. But within each borough, the ward-level spread is even wider.
Take a borough with an 85% overall approval rate. That average is made up of wards at 95% and wards at 72%. The homeowner in the 95% ward and the homeowner in the 72% ward are having completely different planning experiences — even though they're in the same borough, assessed by the same team.
This is why council-level statistics, while useful, aren't enough. You need to know your ward.
What This Means for You
If you're planning an extension, loft conversion, or any project that needs planning permission, your postcode should be the first thing you check — not the last.
Above 90%: Strong odds. A reasonable, policy-compliant application is very likely to succeed. Focus on getting the design right and you should be fine.
80–90%: Good odds but not guaranteed. Pay attention to local plan policies, check what's been approved nearby, and consider pre-application advice for anything ambitious.
70–80%: Competitive. One in four or five applications is refused. You need strong design, clear policy compliance, and ideally local precedent on your side. Pre-application advice is strongly recommended.
Below 70%: Tough area. This doesn't mean you can't get permission, but it means the bar is higher. Invest in a good architect, seek pre-application advice, and make sure your proposal is bulletproof before submitting.
Comparable Decisions: The Ultimate Postcode Check
Better than any statistic is seeing what's actually been approved — and refused — on streets near yours. A comparable decision is a planning application for a similar project on a similar property in the same area. It's the closest thing to a crystal ball that planning offers.
If three rear extensions have been approved on your street in the last five years, yours is almost certainly going to be fine. If two have been refused, you know there's a specific issue in your area that you need to address.
This is postcode-level planning intelligence. Not national averages, not council-wide statistics — specific decisions near your specific property.
What's the approval rate for your postcode?
PlanningLens analyses real planning decisions at the ward level — broken down by extension type, approval rate, and comparable decisions near your property. Free, instant, and specific to your postcode.
Check Your Postcode — Free →Beyond the Numbers
Ward-level data isn't the whole story. Within a single ward, one street might be in a conservation area while the next isn't. One property might have had its permitted development rights removed while its neighbour retains them. Planning is ultimately a site-specific assessment.
But ward-level data gets you much closer to reality than council-level averages. It tells you the planning culture of your specific area — the baseline expectation that officers bring to every application in your neighbourhood.
Start with your postcode. Understand your ward. Check what's been decided nearby. Then make informed decisions about what to propose, how much to spend on design, and whether to seek pre-application advice.
The data exists. Use it before you commit.
Free Postcode Check
See ward-level approval rates, comparable decisions, and refusal patterns near your property. Data from 2,500,000+ real planning decisions across 226 UK councils.
Check Your Postcode →