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Comparison of success rates of planning appeals in London Boroughs

There is significant variability across the London Boroughs in how successful they are in defending planning appeals.  Appealfinder's comparison tables for the past 3 years of PINS statistics are below, revealing some uncomfortable truths about the likelihood of success for s78 planning appeals for appellants and local planning authorities alike.

LPAs with the highest and lowest planning appeal success rates

At the top of the league table for s78 appeals for the year ending 31st March 2021 is Newham, which successfully defended 92% of its appeals with only 8% overturned/ allowed by the Planning Inspectorate.  It was followed by Ealing, Havering and Barking & Dagenham with only 15% - 16% of appeals allowed. (This assessment excludes authorities with only 1 appeal in the year as it is unfair to base judgements on only 1 appeal.)

At the bottom of the league table this year was Merton, which had 56% of its appeals allowed. This is a significant worsening for Merton, which had 29% of appeals allowed in the year ending March 2020 and only 26% allowed in 2019.

Change in planning appeal success rates over time

Some LPAs have improving performance, others worsening performance over time. This can reflect one or more of the following factors:
    • progress of a Local Plan
    • change in five year housing land supply position
    • LPAs granting permission more readily after experiencing a previous swathe of appeals (behaviour adjustment)
    • change in officers and/or councillors
    • statistical variance, particularly there are only a small number of appeals

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