Planning permission in Bedford
What actually happens to planning applications decided by Bedford Borough Council: approval rates, decision times, appeal odds and the development plan they are judged against. Figures cover 3,558 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 Bedford?
Half of decided applications took 56 days or less from validation to decision. The middle 50% of applications took between 39 and 90 days, and 53.8% were decided inside the 8-week statutory target for minor applications. Complex or contested schemes take longer.
The Bedford local plan
The development plan is the Bedford Borough Local Plan 2030 (adopted January 2020), the Allocations and Designations Local Plan (2013), thirteen saved site specific policies of the Local Plan 2002 covering schemes still under construction, and 25 made neighbourhood plans. Bedford is a unitary authority and adopts its own minerals and waste plans jointly with Central Bedfordshire and Luton.
The Bedford Borough Local Plan 2040 was withdrawn at full council on 8 October 2025 after the inspector was unable to find it sound, so it carries no weight in decisions. Work on a replacement Local Plan 2050 has only just commenced, which means there is no emerging plan capable of carrying meaningful weight.
What tends to shape decisions here: There is no Green Belt in Bedford Borough. The defining constraints are the River Great Ouse valley and its flood zones, the Forest of Marston Vale community forest in the south, more than 30 conservation areas, and minerals safeguarding areas over the sand and gravel belt. Housing land supply stands at 3.35 years against a standard method need of 1,235 homes a year, so the presumption in favour is engaged for schemes that add homes, even though delivery measured by the Housing Delivery Test is a healthy 145 per cent.
If Bedford says no: appeal odds
Between 2021 and 2025 the Planning Inspectorate overturned 28.1% of appealed Bedford refusals (108 of 385 decided appeals). The national average is 31.1%. More detail, including how Bedford ranks nationally: planning appeals in Bedford.
Source: decisions published on the Bedford 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 Approval rate = approvals divided by approvals plus refusals; withdrawn applications and other outcomes are excluded.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 15,696 Bedford applications in total. Plan facts as of July 2026; always check the council's own pages for the latest position.
Planning a project in Bedford?
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