August’s Market Insight Report is now available

As of August 2024, planning application numbers continue to fall.

Applications in August saw a decline compared to both the previous month and the same period last year. When compared with August 2023, we have seen applications fall by 5%, whilst when compared to July of this year, the figure falls by around 9.5%.  

August has historically been a slower month for application submissions. Between 2019 and 2021, application figures routinely dropped between July and August by 11-13%. 

Nevertheless, the stats continue to indicate an overall downward trend in application figures year on year. 

How do August’s application stats look for different regions? 

For August 2024, every region experienced some kind of dip in application numbers compared to last year, as demonstrated in the table below. 

The biggest decreases in applications were seen both in the South East and the East of England, which received 1,020 fewer applications between them. 

Similarly, when compared with July of this year, applications figures were down in every region, without exception. Overall London saw the biggest fall, with 1,200 less submissions than in July 2024, followed by the South East, which saw 1,150 fewer applications. 

2024 so far: how does August’s dip effect the whole year? 

When comparing our data throughout the last 7 months, we are seeing an overall decline, in all regions, compared to 2023; This year, to date there has been 392,850 applications, a staggering 20,936 fewer than when compared to the same time last year. 

Overall, we have seen the biggest decrease in the South East so far, which to date has received 4,473 less applications than it had done by this time last year. 

Application types

When we break the applications down by type, the trend for August 2024 is much the same. Nearly all application types have decreased, both compared to the same month last year and year-to-date. 

The exceptions are advertising applications and tree works applications, which both saw slight increases in August. There were also 2% more prior approval applications for larger home extensions than there were in August last year: 

Full planning applications 

Compared with July, August 2024 saw a drop of around 5% in full planning applications. Full planning applications were also down by a total of 11% when compared with August of the previous year. 

Householder applications

Householder applications for August 2024 fell by just over 1,000 when compared to the same month last year – in fact up to the end of August this year, there have been 13,699 fewer householder applications submitted for the year when compared to the same point last year. This is an 11% decrease. 

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