Where councils get
overturned on appeal
We analysed 70,942 planning appeals decided by the Planning Inspectorate between 2021 and 2025. Nearly a third of refusals taken to appeal are overturned - but your odds swing more than threefold depending on which council refused you.
Overturn rate by council
Each area is a local planning authority. The darker the shading, the more often its refusals are overturned on appeal. Hover any council for the figures.
Find your council
| # | Council▼ | Appeals▼ | Overturn rate▼ |
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Ranked by overturn rate. Councils need at least 40 decided appeals (2021 to 2025) to appear. Click any row to find it on the map.
The route you choose changes the odds
Appeals decided after a hearing or inquiry are overturned far more often than those decided on the papers. Bigger, better-argued cases tend to take the longer routes.
How we measured this
Source. 70,942 planning appeals decided by the Planning Inspectorate for England between 2021 and 2025, compiled from the Inspectorate's published decisions. We count appeals against refusal of planning permission (full, householder and minor commercial) and exclude enforcement, advertisement, listed-building, tree, rights-of-way and certificate appeals.
Overturn rate. The share of decided appeals that were allowed (refusal overturned) out of those allowed plus dismissed. Withdrawn, invalid and split decisions are excluded. A council needs at least 40 decided appeals to be ranked, so single odd cases do not distort the table.
The important caveat. An appeal only happens when an applicant chooses to challenge a refusal, so this is the overturn rate among refusals that were appealed - not the share of all refusals that were wrong. A low rate can mean a council refuses well; a high rate can mean its refusals are worth challenging. Read it as a map of where appealing pays off, not a council scorecard.
Know the odds before you file.
GapSense reads your draft application against the local plan and the national framework that will decide it - and flags the refusal risks before your council ever sees it.