Planning permission in Salford
What actually happens to planning applications decided by Salford City Council: approval rates, decision times, appeal odds and the development plan they are judged against. Figures cover 3,426 applications decided in the two years to July 2026, from the council's public planning register.
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How long does planning permission take in Salford?
Half of decided applications took 56 days or less from validation to decision. The middle 50% of applications took between 46 and 71 days, and 61.7% were decided inside the 8-week statutory target for minor applications. Complex or contested schemes take longer.
The Salford local plan
The Salford Local Plan: Development Management Policies and Designations (adopted 18 January 2023) replaced every saved Unitary Development Plan policy, and sits under Places for Everyone (adopted March 2024, the joint plan for nine Greater Manchester districts) alongside the Greater Manchester joint minerals and waste plans.
Part two of the Local Plan, the Core Strategy and Allocations document, was consulted on in draft over winter 2024 to 2025 and is progressing toward examination, so its policies carry limited weight for now.
What tends to shape decisions here: Development pressure splits between the regeneration corridor at Salford Quays, Ordsall and MediaCity, where tall buildings and design quality dominate, and a large Green Belt including the Chat Moss peat mosslands, where lowland raised bog habitat and agricultural land quality bite. Flood risk along the Irwell valley is a recurring constraint, and housing delivery is strong, so the tilted balance is not routinely engaged on delivery grounds.
If Salford says no: appeal odds
Between 2021 and 2025 the Planning Inspectorate overturned 26.3% of appealed Salford refusals (26 of 99 decided appeals). The national average is 31.1%. More detail, including how Salford ranks nationally: planning appeals in Salford.
Source: decisions published on the Salford City Council public planning register, two years to July 2026. Approval rate = approvals divided by approvals plus refusals; withdrawn applications and other outcomes are excluded. We track 12,049 Salford applications in total. Plan facts as of July 2026; always check the council's own pages for the latest position.
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