Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many and what proportion of local authority planning decisions have been overturned by the Planning Inspectorate in the last 12 months.

Between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025 the Planning Inspectorate overturned 4,747 planning decisions made by Local Planning Authorities (LPAs).

These represent 31% of the 15,344 decisions made by the Planning Inspectorate on LPA planning cases in this period. Note these figures are taken from administrative data and so are subject to minor revisions.

The most recent published MHCLG statistics help put the 4,747 decisions in context (noting the different time periods covered). Between January to December 2024:

• 316,715 planning decisions were made by LPAs – so roughly 1.5% of these are overturned by the Planning Inspectorate.
• 44,479 planning applications were refused by LPAs – so approximately 11% of refused LPA decisions are overturned by the Planning Inspectorate.