Appeal evidence
How the appeal route relates to the outcome
Every planning appeal decided in England is handled by one of three procedures. They do not carry the same outcome rates, and the difference is large. These are counted from the Planning Inspectorate’s own published decisions between 1 January 2021 and 30 June 2026.
| Procedure | Allowed | Dismissed | Decided |
|---|---|---|---|
| Written Representations | 27% (13,228) | 34,609 | 48,147 |
| Hearing | 47% (1,193) | 1,342 | 2,565 |
| Inquiry | 64% (691) | 389 | 1,082 |
51,794 decided planning appeals. A procedure with fewer than 100 decisions is not listed rather than shown with a rate drawn from a handful of cases.
Read this as a pattern, not as a lever
The obvious conclusion — ask for an inquiry and improve your odds — does not follow from these figures, and acting on it would cost you time and money for nothing. The procedure is chosen to suit the appeal: inquiries are used for larger, more complex and more heavily evidenced cases, often with counsel and expert witnesses. Those cases would be stronger whichever route they took. What the table shows is that different kinds of appeal take different routes, not that the route improves the appeal.
The Inspectorate decides the procedure, using published criteria, and a request for an inquiry is not granted on request.
What this does not tell you
- Nothing about a particular site. Appeal outcomes turn on the development, the policy position and the evidence, none of which is in these counts.
- Nothing about the future. This is what happened to appeals already decided in this window; it is not a forecast, and the policy background has moved within it.
- Nothing about appeals still undecided, withdrawn or turned away. Those are excluded from the rates above rather than counted as dismissals.
- Planning appeals only. Enforcement, advertisement, rights of way and common land cases are decided on different tests and are not included.
Appeal outcomes for a specific council
We publish allowed and dismissed counts for 162 English authorities, on the same basis as the table above, alongside their measured decision times and Housing Delivery Test position.
Find your councilSource: Planning Inspectorate appeals database, England only, Open Government Licence v3.0, release of 2026-08-03. Counted by PF & Co. We publish counts, never case records: no site addresses, no appellant or agent names.