Planning permission in South Gloucestershire
What actually happens to planning applications decided by South Gloucestershire Council: approval rates, decision times, appeal odds and the development plan they are judged against. Figures cover 4,365 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 South Gloucestershire?
Half of decided applications took 53 days or less from validation to decision. The middle 50% of applications took between 42 and 74 days, and 63.8% were decided inside the 8-week statutory target for minor applications. Complex or contested schemes take longer.
The South Gloucestershire local plan
The development plan is the Core Strategy 2006 to 2027 (adopted 2013) with the Policies, Sites and Places plan (2017), the joint West of England waste core strategy and three made neighbourhood plans.
A new local plan covering 2026 to 2041 was submitted for examination in October 2025; it is a material consideration but not adopted.
What tends to shape decisions here: Recent appeals have put housing land supply at roughly 4 years, below the five year requirement, so decisions on housing frequently turn on site-specific harms. The Bristol and Bath Green Belt defines the district, and it has been an early testing ground for the NPPF grey belt policy at appeal.
If South Gloucestershire says no: appeal odds
Between 2021 and 2025 the Planning Inspectorate overturned 40.2% of appealed South Gloucestershire refusals (143 of 356 decided appeals). The national average is 31.1%. More detail, including how South Gloucestershire ranks nationally: planning appeals in South Gloucestershire.
Source: decisions published on the South Gloucestershire 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 Approval rate = approvals divided by approvals plus refusals; withdrawn applications and other outcomes are excluded.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 15,911 South Gloucestershire applications in total. Plan facts as of July 2026; always check the council's own pages for the latest position.
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