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 30 June 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 30th June 2025
• Ministerial measures on timeliness of appeals, year ending 30th June 2025

Appeal Success rates for s78 appeals

Planning appeal success rates over the past quarter April - June 2025 averaged 32%, 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 April-June 2025 were 30% for written representations appeals (aqua line in the graph below) and 32% overall for all s78 planning appeals (navy blue line). Written representation appeals made up 92.5% of planning appeals.

Appeals through the Hearings procedure (orange line) had a higher success rate of 48% last quarter but comprised only 5.2% of appeals. Inquiries (black line) had an appeal success rate of 73% last quarter but made up only 2.3% 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 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% compared to 23%). Householder development also has a significantly higher success rate on appeal, on average 36% over 2024/25, while commercial appeals had an average success rate of 30% over 2024/25.

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 30 June 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 August 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 June 2025

PINS' efforts to improve timescales are certainly working, with this quarter's figures showing consistent improvement across all procedures. Written reps determined within 20 weeks has increased from 26.5% to 28.4%, while hearings determined within 26 weeks has risen from 23.5% to 26.1%. For inquiries, the biggest improvement is in the 'within 52 weeks' category, which has risen from 41% to 44.2%. Timescales are moving in the right direction.

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

(Count is in thousands)

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

(Count is in thousands)

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

(Count is in thousands)

To find appeals of interest to you, use the search on our Home page.