Small residential applications have fallen 55% since 2018. Here's where they're still getting through.
Eight years of English and Welsh planning application data on small residential schemes (2-9 homes), benchmarked against major development and the government's own reform plans. What's driving the decline, where approval odds are still strong, and why the real problem isn't a lack of demand.
What is in the report?
Eight years of small-sites planning data, England and Wales-wide - application volumes, approval rates, decision speed, and the one recent quarter that suggests the collapse might be bottoming out.
The scale of the decline
Applications for small residential schemes have fallen 55% since 2018 - even as the government's own planning policy explicitly pushes councils to approve more of them, not fewer.
Decision speed hasn't recovered either
Median decision times spiked through the pandemic and still haven't returned to 2018 levels, despite roughly half the caseload landing on planning officers' desks.
What happens on appeal
Small sites win on appeal about half as often as major residential schemes of the same use class - 21% versus roughly 40% in 2023-24. We break down why the gap has widened, not narrowed.
Where approval is hardest - and where it isn't
Some councils have seen their small-sites pipeline fall by more than 80% since 2018. Others - Cornwall, Telford and Wrekin - are approving at 80%+ and, in one case, growing. And like Solar's North Yorkshire, one of the worst-looking figures in the raw data turned out to be a merged council hiding under seven old district names.
What might change next
A live government consultation on the National Planning Policy Framework names the exact problem this report found, and proposes new easements aimed at SME developers specifically. Nothing is law yet - here's what's actually on the table.
What next?
Get in touch if you have any questions, or would like a one-to-one demonstration of the platform. Want to run this kind of analysis yourself? Explore Searchland's MCP connector, or see how Housing Delivery Test data and local planning authority profiles fit alongside planning data in the platform.
