Planning permission in Redbridge
What actually happens to planning applications decided by London Borough of Redbridge: approval rates, decision times, appeal odds and the development plan they are judged against. Figures cover 7,367 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 Redbridge?
Half of decided applications took 35 days or less from validation to decision. The middle 50% of applications took between 24 and 52 days, and 83.9% were decided inside the 8-week statutory target for minor applications. Complex or contested schemes take longer.
The Redbridge local plan
The development plan is the London Plan 2021 together with the Redbridge Local Plan 2015 to 2030 (adopted March 2018), the East London Waste Authority Joint Waste DPD (2012) and the Redbridge Minerals Local Plan (2012). There are no made neighbourhood plans.
No replacement Local Plan has reached consultation, so the 2018 plan remains the adopted document.
What tends to shape decisions here: Redbridge has one of the widest gaps in England between housing need and delivery. The Housing Delivery Test result is 39 per cent, which triggers the presumption in favour of sustainable development, a 20 per cent buffer and an action plan, and the council accepts in its own monitoring report that it cannot demonstrate a five year housing land supply and that its housing policies are out of date and carry only limited weight. Both tilted balance triggers are therefore engaged. Growth is directed to Ilford and the Crossrail corridor, and Green Belt on the borough's eastern edge remains the principal counterweight.
If Redbridge says no: appeal odds
Between 2021 and 2025 the Planning Inspectorate overturned 29.7% of appealed Redbridge refusals (151 of 508 decided appeals). The national average is 31.1%. More detail, including how Redbridge ranks nationally: planning appeals in Redbridge.
Source: decisions published on the London Borough of Redbridge 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 Approval rate = approvals divided by approvals plus refusals; withdrawn applications and other outcomes are excluded.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 27,537 Redbridge applications in total. Plan facts as of July 2026; always check the council's own pages for the latest position.
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