Planning permission in Norwich
What actually happens to planning applications decided by Norwich City Council: approval rates, decision times, appeal odds and the development plan they are judged against. Figures cover 2,287 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 Norwich?
Half of decided applications took 50 days or less from validation to decision. The middle 50% of applications took between 37 and 56 days, and 78.0% were decided inside the 8-week statutory target for minor applications. Major applications run to a 13-week target, or 16 weeks where an environmental impact assessment is required, and contested schemes take longer still.
The Norwich local plan
The development plan has two parts, and both matter on a Norwich application. The Greater Norwich Local Plan, adopted by the council on 12 March 2024, is a joint plan with Broadland and South Norfolk that sets the growth strategy, the housing requirement and the site allocations, in policies 1 to 7 and allocations coded STR, NCC, NON and NOS. Alongside it, the Norwich Development Management Policies Local Plan of December 2014 carries the day to day determination policies DM1 to DM33, and was reviewed and retained in January 2025. The Norwich Site Allocations plan of 2014 and the older Joint Core Strategy were both superseded by the Greater Norwich Local Plan, so policies from either no longer apply. Norwich is entirely unparished and has no made neighbourhood plans.
A new joint plan, the Greater Norwich Local Plan 2045, is at a very early stage. The three authorities have given notice of their intention to prepare it and ran call for sites exercises during 2026, but no draft policies have been published, so it carries effectively no weight and there is nothing yet to cite. The plan has to be updated by March 2029.
What tends to shape decisions here: Nutrient neutrality is the constraint that decides most Norwich housing schemes. The city drains to the River Wensum and the Broads, where Natural England advice from March 2022 means new homes must show no net increase in phosphorus, and in the Broads catchment nitrogen too, usually by buying mitigation credits before permission can be granted. It is also why Greater Norwich can only demonstrate a 4.85 year housing land supply against a five year requirement, which engages the presumption in favour of sustainable development for schemes that add homes. Beyond that, Norwich has one of the most concentrated historic environments in the country, with 17 conservation areas, a medieval street pattern and extensive listed buildings, along with flood risk along the Wensum and Yare and an Article 4 direction that removes the right to convert city centre offices to homes without permission.
If Norwich says no: appeal odds
Between 2021 and 2025 the Planning Inspectorate overturned 23.4% of appealed Norwich refusals (11 of 47 decided appeals). The national average is 31.1%. More detail, including how Norwich ranks nationally: planning appeals in Norwich.
Source: decisions published on the Norwich City 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 8,108 Norwich applications in total. Plan facts as of July 2026; always check the council's own pages for the latest position.
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