Planning appeal success rates and timescales
1. TIMESCALES
For written representations appeals, the median number of weeks from an appeal being ‘valid’ to its Decision in February 2024 was 30 weeks for s78 planning appeals and 18 weeks for householder appeals (Source: Annex B of PINS statistical tables published 28/03/24).
Enforcement appeals by written reps in February 2024 had a median timescale of 49 weeks. Hearings and inquiries generally take longer, but with a smaller number of cases the averages can be misleading. Full details are on the Planning Inspectorate webpage.
The experimental statistics on Ministerial Measures give a more complete picture on timescales and provide a handy picture to share with clients when they ask you, "How long?" Please note they show performance over a 12 month period so will be different from the monthly averages above.
Graph A: PINS timescales for written reps appeals, January - December 2023
Graph B: PINS timescales for hearings, January - December 2023
Graph C: PINS timescales for inquiries, January - December 2023
2. SUCCESS RATES
Planning appeal success rates over the past quarter Oct - Dec 2023 average 27%, according to the latest statistics issued by the Planning Inspectorate.
Figure 1. s78 planning appeal success rates 2018-2023
Appeal success rates for written reps, hearings and inquiries
Written representation appeals (red line in the graph below) make up 93% of planning appeals so the overall appeal success rate (yellow) closely mirrors the average for this procedure. The appeal success rates for Oct - Dec 2023 were 25% for written representations appeals and 27% overall for all s78 planning appeals.
Appeals through the Hearings procedure (green line in the graph below) had a higher success rate of 47% last quarter but comprise only 4% of s78 planning appeals. Inquiries (grey) had the highest appeal success rate of 62% last quarter but make up only 3% of s78 planning appeals.
Figure 2. s78 planning appeal success rates by procedure type
Tempting as it is to ask for a hearing or an inquiry, the Planning Inspectorate has strict criteria for deciding when these procedures can be used, which can be found in Annex K of the PINS Planning Appeals Procedural Guide.
Appeal success rates by Inspector, LPA and development type
The annual success rates for s78 appeals, householder appeals and enforcement appeals for the 2 years ending 31st March 2022 and 31st March 2023 are available for individual Inspectors here and for each Local Planning Authority here. We will update these to 31st March 2024 as soon as PINS publish the next update, expected in early May 2024.
To find appeals of interest to you, use the search on our Home page.
