July’s Market Insight Report is now available

  

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

There was a total of 52,550 applications submitted through Planning Portal in July 2024. This is 1% lower than the total number of applications that were submitted in July 2023, showing a smaller decline than most months this year when compared to 2023. 

July 2024 saw an 11% increase in application submissions compared with last month. The last three years have seen similar figures for June and July. This is a significantly larger increase, 5,252 more applications across England and Wales. 

The regional view 

In July, every region in England saw a percentage increase in application numbers when compared with June 2024. These increases were all within the 9-12% range. Wales had the smallest increase in volume and percentage. They had 88 more applications; only a 5% increase from June 2024.  

July’s regional numbers were broadly similar to 2023. The only exception was the East of England, which saw a 6% decrease (384 fewer submissions).  

The South-East and London regions continued to receive the most applications in July 2024, with 10,669 and 10,374 respectively. These two regions also saw the largest increase in application volume compared to the previous month, both receiving over a thousand more than they did in June. 

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

Applications by type  

The table below shows how applications by type have risen or fallen, compared with July 2023. 

Householder (-6%), full (-5%) and outline (-12%) planning applications all declined in July 2024 when compared with July 2023. 

Meanwhile, applications for discharge of conditions have shown a sizable increase, with 658 more submitted in July 2024 compared to 2023 (a 10% increase). This could be related to Biodiversity Net Gain, which was not a nationally standard condition on permissions last year. 

Householder and Associated applications 

Householder applications were up by 767 against June 2024, but down by just under a thousand against July 2023.  

In 2024, up to the end of July, there have been 12,632 fewer household applications than up to the same point last year. 

The number of lawful development applications in July 2024 remained very close to what they were in July 2023, with a slight decrease of 3%. However, there was an increase of 113 such applications compared with June 2024. 

Full planning applications  

Full applications also fell by around 500 compared with last year but showed an increase of just under 400 compared to the previous month, June 2024. 

The overall downward year-on-year trend is not mirrored in the June-to-July differences, with these alternating between increase and decrease ever since 2020.  

Outline applications decreased only slightly compared to June 2023, with 46 less submissions, though this represented a larger percentage of the total. 

Planning fees processed for online applications  

Almost £26.5m in planning fees were processed in July, this was a 23% increase from July 2023, a difference of almost £5m. 

Comparing July to the previous month, over £6m more was processed, an increase of 30%. 

The Planning Portal has 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.