Planning permission in Dacorum
What actually happens to planning applications decided by Dacorum Borough Council: approval rates, decision times, appeal odds and the development plan they are judged against. Figures cover 4,288 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 Dacorum?
Half of decided applications took 51 days or less from validation to decision. The middle 50% of applications took between 30 and 60 days, and 71.9% were decided inside the 8-week statutory target for minor applications. Complex or contested schemes take longer.
The Dacorum local plan
The development plan is a four part set: the Core Strategy 2006 to 2031 (adopted September 2013), the Site Allocations plan (July 2017), the 79 surviving saved policies of the Dacorum Borough Local Plan 1991 to 2011 (April 2004) together with eight of its nine appendices, and three made neighbourhood plans for Grovehill, Kings Langley and Bovingdon. Hertfordshire County Council prepares the minerals and waste plans.
The Dacorum Local Plan to 2041 was submitted for examination in March 2025 and hearings finished in March 2026, but in July 2026 the inspectors found the largest Green Belt allocation unjustified and the plan short of the land needed to meet its housing requirement. There has been no main modifications consultation, so it is not yet a safe basis for any figure.
What tends to shape decisions here: Just over half the borough is Metropolitan Green Belt and the Core Strategy Green Belt policy is cited more than twice as often as any other in appeals here. Housing land supply is between about 1.03 and 1.2 years, well short of five, so the presumption in favour is engaged for schemes that add homes, but on a Green Belt site it is switched off again where Green Belt harm gives a clear reason for refusal. The Chilterns National Landscape covers the north and west, and the borough has 25 conservation areas and around 2,000 listed buildings. The council was placed in special measures for major applications in June 2026, so applicants for major schemes can apply directly to the Planning Inspectorate.
If Dacorum says no: appeal odds
Between 2021 and 2025 the Planning Inspectorate overturned 28.9% of appealed Dacorum refusals (81 of 280 decided appeals). The national average is 31.1%. More detail, including how Dacorum ranks nationally: planning appeals in Dacorum.
Source: decisions published on the Dacorum 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 15,731 Dacorum applications in total. Plan facts as of July 2026; always check the council's own pages for the latest position.
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