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Comparison of success rates for planning appeals in Eastern England

There is significant variability across the local planning authorities in the Eastern Region in how successful they are in defending planning appeals.  Appealfinder's comparison tables for the past 3 years of PINS statistics are below, revealing some uncomfortable truths about the likelihood of success for s78 planning appeals for appellants and local planning authorities alike.

LPAs with the highest and lowest planning appeal success rates

The LPAs with the best records for successfully defending their s78 appeals in 2020/21 were East Cambridgeshire, Rochford and Thurrock, with 12% or less of appeals overturned/ allowed by the Planning Inspectorate. In East Cambridgeshire's case, this represents a significant improvement on the previous years, turning around a high failure rate of 45% of appeals allowed in 2018/19 and 30% in 2019/20 to only 11% in 2020/21.

At the bottom of the league table this year were Brentwood, South-on-Sea, Hertsmere and St. Edmundsbury with over 36% of their appeals allowed, significantly higher than the national average of 25%.

NB. This 'best' and 'worst' assessment excludes authorities with only 1 appeal in the year (generally County Councils and National Park authorities) as it is not fair to base any assessment on a single appeal.

Change in planning appeal success rates over time

Some LPAs have improving performance, others worsening performance over time. This can reflect one or more of the following factors:
    • progress of a Local Plan
    • change in five year housing land supply position
    • LPAs granting permission more readily after experiencing a previous swathe of appeals (behaviour adjustment)
    • change in officers and/or councillors
    • statistical variance, particularly there are only a small number of appeals

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