Planning appeal success rates and timescales

On this page are PINS' latest published statistics including the latest Ministerial Measures:

• Appeal Success rates for s78 appeals, to 31st December 2025
• Appeal Success rates for s78 appeals by procedure (written reps, hearings, inquiries)
• Appeal Success rates for s78 appeals by development type
• Link to average success rates by LPA and by Inspector
• Planning appeal Timescales, month ending 31st December 2025
• Ministerial measures on timeliness of appeals, year ending 30th September 2025

Appeal Success rates for s78 appeals

Planning appeal success rates over the past quarter October-December 2025 averaged 30%, according to statistics published by the Planning Inspectorate. Please note the overall average obscures wide difference between different types of appeal procedure (see figure 2) and between different types of development (see figure 3).

Figure 1. s78 planning appeal success rates by quarter for the past 5 years

Appeal success rates for written reps, hearings and inquiries

The appeal success rates for October-December 2025 were 29% for written representations appeals (navy line in the graph below) and 30% overall for all s78 planning appeals (black line). Written representation appeals made up 94% of planning appeals.

Appeals through the Hearings procedure (aqua line) had a success rate of 40% last quarter but comprised only 4% of appeals. Inquiries (orange line) had an appeal success rate of 62% last quarter but made up only 2% 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 type of development 

Certain types of development are generally more successful on appeal than other types, for example, major applications for 10+ dwellings have double the success rate on appeal compared to minor applications for under 10 dwellings (in 2024/25, a national average of 47% for major residential developments compared to 23% for minor residential developments). Householder development also has a significantly higher success rate on appeal, on average 36% over 2024/25.

Quarterly figures for show the Government's drive to support housing is continuing to push up appeal success rates for major housing developments, with national quarterly averages in 2025/26 Q1 of 56%, Q2 53% and Q3 53%. However the 2025/26 does not yet appear to show much improvement for minor housing developments, with quarterly averages in Q1 of 24%, Q2 23% and Q3 24%.

Figure 3. Percentage of appeals allowed by type of development

Sources: Planning Inspectorate Annual and Quarterly Statistics published 17th July 2025, from tables 2.4a, 2.6a and 2.7.

Appeal success rates by LPA and Inspector

Local Planning Authorities' appeal success rates for the past 3 years ending 31st March 2025, 2024 and 2023 are available for each Local Planning Authority here, for s78 appeals, householder appeals and enforcement appeals.

Success rates by individual Inspectors for the past 2 years ending 31st March 2024 and 2025 are also available.

Planning appeal Timescales

For the month ending 31st December 2025 the Planning Inspectorate's timescales were:

Full details are in Annex B on the Planning Inspectorate webpage.

Ministerial Measures on Timeliness of appeals

The latest Ministerial Measures on how quickly planning applications are decided were published on 21st November 2025. They show further improvement in timescales and provide a handy picture to share with clients when they ask you, "How long....?"

Figure 1: Percentage of appeals decided within set timescales, year ending September 2025

PINS' efforts to improve timescales are certainly working. Written reps have improved significantly, compared to 6 months ago when only 26.5% were decided within 20 weeks for the year ending April, now a significantly better 33.9%.

Hearings have likewise improved compared to 6 months previously, when only 23.5% were decided within 26 weeks, now up to 28.2%. For inquiries, 6 months ago only 41.0% were decided within 52 weeks, now up to 44.6%. Timescales are rapidly improving.

Figure 2: Percentage of appeals decided within 20, 26, 52 or 52+ weeks, year ending 30 September 2025

Timescale is measured by PINS from the date the appeal is deemed "valid" until the date of the appeal decision.

Figure 3: PINS timescales for written representation appeals, year ending 30 September 2025

(Count is in thousands)

Figure 4: PINS timescales for hearings, year ending 30th September 2025

(Count is in thousands)

Figure 5: PINS timescales for inquiries, year ending 30th September 2025

(Count is in thousands)

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