March’s Market Insight Report is now available

Welcome to March’s issue of the Planning Portal Market Insight Report, where we report on the latest figures for planning applications submitted online via the Planning Portal. 

There were a total of 67,103 applications submitted through the Planning Portal in March 2024. This is 11% higher than the total number of applications that were submitted in March 2023. This shows a good recovery for the first quarter of 2024.  

The headline takeaway from March’s data is that full planning and associated consents saw a record high, with 15,315 of these kind of applications submitted. This is because on 2 April, the exemption that had previously allowed small site applications to bypass Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) requirements, was lifted. 

Excluding Works to Protected Trees and Telecoms applications, the total number of applications for March was 60,230 – this is 12% higher than in March 2023, which had a total of 53,585 applications. 

The regional view

Most regions saw an increase in applications compared to March last year, with the South-East being the lowest with just an 8% increase, whilst Wales achieving the highest incline at 15% incline, which equates to an additional 331 applications.

Of England’s regions, the South-West saw the biggest increase, at 14% or an additional 989 applications. The South-East however received the highest volume of applications in March, with nearly 13,500. Additionally, London saw 12,500 applications submitted, which is an increase of 13%. 

The map below shows the percentage change in the number of applications submitted per region in March 2024, compared with March 2023. 

Applications by type 

The table below shows how applications by type rose or fell in March of this year, when compared with March 2023. 

Householder submissions saw a 2% increase in March compared to last year, with just over 18,500 applications being submitted. However, Prior Approval applications for larger home extensions were 4% down.  

For Q1 of 2024, Householder applications were down 7% and Prior Approvals down 8% overall. It will be interesting to see if this changes throughout the year as interest rates stabilise and following the impending election.    

Full Planning and associated consents had 15,315 submissions, beating the previous best of 14,225 back in March 2021! This increase is again clearly linked to the new BNG requirements for small sites that came into effect on 2 April. 

Reviewing other application types for Q1, Telecoms increased 68% on the previous year, whereas Advertising applications were 12% higher. When conducting a straight comparison with March 2023, these types are -74% and +30% respectively.   

Householder and Associated applications 

Householder submissions for Quarter 1 reached 44,788, compared with 48,103 in the same Quarter last year, which equates to a 7% decrease. 

As for other home improvement projects in Q1, Lawful Development Certificates saw a growth of 6% in 2024, with 12,857 applications being submitted, compared to 12,170 in the previous year. 

Full Planning applications  

As previously alluded to, full application submission numbers for March 2024 are slightly distorted due to the new BNG requirements. Q1 realised 10% growth, with 33,653 applications submitted, compared to 2023’s figure of 30,603. 

Following this influx, it’s possible that April could see a prominent decrease in application numbers, since many submissions have clearly been brought forward to avoid new specialist BNG requirements. 

Planning fees processed for online applications  

A total of £25,233,121 in planning fees were processed in March, which is an increase of 30% when compared to March 2023. This again reflects the higher submission rate prompted by the change to BNG requirements. 

Comparing Q1 to the same quarter last year, an additional £7 million has been passed to Local Planning Authorities, which is an increase of 37%. This is mainly due to the increase introduced by government last December, which saw application fees rise by around 25 – 35%. 

It is hoped this additional income will allow authorities to better resource their departments and become more financially stable and therefore better able to meet overall service delivery costs. 

Planning Portal have access to online application data exclusively available at the point of submission to Local Planning Authorities.

The insights this data provides allows you to gain an early idea of what’s being applied for throughout England and Wales.

If you would like to access this data on a more granular level, please email: communications@planningportal.co.uk 

To access this data first, subscribe to our mailing list here.