Planning permission in Brentwood
What actually happens to planning applications decided by Brentwood Borough Council: approval rates, decision times, appeal odds and the development plan they are judged against. Figures cover 2,467 applications decided in the two years to August 2026, from the council's public planning register.
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How long does planning permission take in Brentwood?
Half of decided applications took 61 days or less from validation to decision. The middle 50% of applications took between 49 and 87 days, and 43.4% were decided inside the 8-week statutory target for minor applications. Complex or contested schemes take longer.
The Brentwood local plan
The development plan is the Brentwood Local Plan 2016-2033, adopted in March 2022, together with the Ingatestone and Fryerning Neighbourhood Plan and the Essex minerals and waste plans prepared by Essex County Council. Nothing of the 2005 Replacement Local Plan survives. The council also charges the Community Infrastructure Levy, which took effect in January 2024.
A review of the local plan is under way but has not yet reached a published draft, so there is nothing that carries weight as a material consideration. The council has said its timetable depends on the government's new plan-making regulations. The 2016-2033 plan remains the adopted development plan.
What tends to shape decisions here: The decisive constraint is Green Belt. The Metropolitan Green Belt covers 89 per cent of the borough, the sixth highest proportion in England, so most sites outside a settlement boundary need very special circumstances. Growth is concentrated at Dunton Hills Garden Village, a new settlement of around 4,000 homes east of the A128. The council publishes a five year housing land supply of 5.18 years, though that figure predates the tighter buffer rules that took effect in July 2026. Epping Forest and the Essex coast European sites also require mitigation for new homes.
If Brentwood says no: appeal odds
Between 2021 and 2025 the Planning Inspectorate overturned 31.1% of appealed Brentwood refusals (68 of 219 decided appeals). The national average is 31.1%. More detail, including how Brentwood ranks nationally: planning appeals in Brentwood.
Source: decisions published on the Brentwood Borough Council public planning register, two years to August 2026. Approval rate = approvals divided by approvals plus refusals; withdrawn applications and other outcomes are excluded. We track 9,888 Brentwood applications in total. Plan facts as of July 2026; always check the council's own pages for the latest position.
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