Planning permission in Enfield
What actually happens to planning applications decided by London Borough of Enfield: approval rates, decision times, appeal odds and the development plan they are judged against. Figures cover 7,598 applications decided in the two years to August 2026, from the council's public planning register.
GapSense is an AI review for UK planning. It reads the Enfield policies that will decide your application, screens your site or draft against them, and flags the risks before the council sees it. No card needed.
How long does planning permission take in Enfield?
Half of decided applications took 47 days or less from validation to decision. The middle 50% of applications took between 37 and 55 days, and 86.3% were decided inside the 8-week statutory target for minor applications. Complex or contested schemes take longer.
The Enfield local plan
Decisions are made against the London Plan (2021) and Enfield's own suite: the Core Strategy (adopted November 2010), the Development Management Document (adopted November 2014) and three area action plans covering the North Circular, North East Enfield and Edmonton Leeside. The North London Waste Plan and the Hadley Wood Neighbourhood Plan complete the development plan.
The new Enfield Local Plan 2019 to 2041 is well advanced but not adopted. It was submitted in August 2024, hearings closed in March 2026 and the inspector issued his post hearing letter in June 2026, with main modifications and the final report still to come. It carries real weight as a material consideration at this stage, but the 2010 and 2014 documents remain the adopted plan.
What tends to shape decisions here: Enfield holds substantial Metropolitan Green Belt in the north of the borough, which is the central issue in the examination: the inspector has required five rural allocations to be deleted, including the one at Hadley Wood, while retaining the larger releases at Crews Hill and Chase Park in reduced form. The Lee Valley corridor in the east brings flood risk and the Meridian Water regeneration area. A borough wide article 4 direction removes permitted development rights for conversions to small houses in multiple occupation. The council reports 3.1 years of housing land supply against a London Plan target of 1,246 homes a year, so the presumption in favour is engaged for schemes that add homes, while the Housing Delivery Test result of 76 per cent adds a 20 per cent buffer without triggering the presumption on its own.
If Enfield says no: appeal odds
Between 2021 and 2025 the Planning Inspectorate overturned 30.1% of appealed Enfield refusals (181 of 602 decided appeals). The national average is 31.1%. More detail, including how Enfield ranks nationally: planning appeals in Enfield.
Source: decisions published on the London Borough of Enfield 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 24,598 Enfield applications in total. Plan facts as of July 2026; always check the council's own pages for the latest position.
Planning a project in Enfield?
GapSense reads the policies that will decide your application and screens your site against them in minutes. No card needed.