Claim that Rotherham planners only say yes to 66 per cent of applicants - but council says it's way more
HOMEOWNERS wanting to carry out improvements to their houses in Rotherham have a tougher time getting planning permission than most places in the country, according to a new study.
An approval rate for planning applications of 66 per cent is claimed for Rotherham Council by the study which means that nearly a third get rejected in the borough making life tougher for those wanting to undertake improvements than elsewhere in the country.
But Rotherham Council says that it approves many more planning improvement applications than the study suggests.
Specialist lender Pepper Money analysed data from the government’s Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government and concluded that Rotherham is the local authority with one of the lowest approval rates.
More homeowners are choosing to renovate homes rather than move because of rising house prices sparking a year on year rise in Google searches for “planning permission” of eight per cent.
A spokesperson for Pepper Money said: “Rotherham is the local authority where homeowners faced the toughest odds of approval rates, at just 66 per cent. Followed by Hounslow, Windsor and Maidenhead.
“Nottingham was the slowest to decide, processing just 62 per cent of applications on time, compared with 26 councils that met 100 per cent of deadlines.
“The North East region is where homeowners were most likely to secure approval, with 95 per cent on average.
“Rotherham has the worst approval rates of any local authority for planning applications.
“Rotherham was reported as having the lowest planning approval rate of any local authority in the country, approving only 66 per cent of planning applications received in the previous year.
“This means that roughly one in three applications were not granted.
“This relatively low approval rate suggests that developers and homeowners in Rotherham may face stricter planning controls, higher scrutiny from planning officers and committees, or more local objections compared with most other councils.”
At the other end of the table, five authorities approved every single application they received - Fareham, Rushmoor, Halton, the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation, and the City of London all recorded a 100 per cent approval rate.
Across the UK, on average 87 per cent of all planning applications were granted last year.
But a spokesperson for Rotherham Council did not accept the 66 per cent figure attributed to it by the research and asserted that permission is given in many more cases than suggested by the findings.
The spokesperson said: “No, there is an error in the data.
“Across two out of the three quarters in 2025 the overall statistics show that Rotherham grant around 90 per cent of all applications across all types.
“This is typical of statistics for granted applications in Rotherham.
“Overall, 90 planning applications for Householder Development were determined and 83 were granted giving a total for this category of 92 per cent of applications granted.
“There is an error in the data which has been identified, and we will contact MHCLG to ask for this data to be corrected,” the spokesperson added.