Planning permission in Cornwall
What actually happens to planning applications decided by Cornwall Council: approval rates, decision times, appeal odds and the development plan they are judged against. Figures cover 19,505 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 Cornwall?
Half of decided applications took 51 days or less from validation to decision. The middle 50% of applications took between 35 and 60 days, and 72.5% were decided inside the 8-week statutory target for minor applications. Complex or contested schemes take longer.
The Cornwall local plan
The development plan is the Cornwall Local Plan Strategic Policies 2010 to 2030 (adopted November 2016) together with the Site Allocations DPD (2019), the Climate Emergency DPD (2023), the Minerals Safeguarding DPD (2018) and the made neighbourhood plans. Cornwall is a unitary authority and its own minerals and waste planning authority.
A new Cornwall Local Plan to 2050 was formally commenced in April 2026 but no draft policies have been published and the first consultation has not opened, so it carries minimal weight today.
What tends to shape decisions here: The adopted plan requires about 2,625 homes a year while the current standard method produces roughly 4,421, and because the plan is over five years old supply is measured against the higher figure. That alone put the five year supply at about 3.9 years and engages the tilted balance, even though delivery itself passes the Housing Delivery Test at 116 per cent. Around a quarter of Cornwall lies in the Cornwall National Landscape, in twelve separate sections, and the Climate Emergency DPD adds coastal change designations that many authorities do not have.
If Cornwall says no: appeal odds
Between 2021 and 2025 the Planning Inspectorate overturned 33.1% of appealed Cornwall refusals (303 of 915 decided appeals). The national average is 31.1%. More detail, including how Cornwall ranks nationally: planning appeals in Cornwall.
Source: decisions published on the Cornwall 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 Approval rate = approvals divided by approvals plus refusals; withdrawn applications and other outcomes are excluded.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 70,728 Cornwall applications in total. Plan facts as of July 2026; always check the council's own pages for the latest position.
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