Full planning applications and associated consents hit a record high in latest figures published for England and Wales.

There were a total of 15,315 of these kind of applications submitted in March, up by 30% on March 2023, according to Planning Portal. The previous highest was 14,225 in March 2021.

Full applications for the first quarter of 2024 were up by 10% on the same period in 2023, from 30,603 to 33,653.

However, the figures may well have been distorted by the lifting of an exemption on small site applications for Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) requirements on April 2.

Planning Portal suggests that the ending of this exemption led to submissions being brought forward to March to qualify for the exemption rather than being allowed to fall under BNG requirement from April onwards.

Planning Portal is the national planning and building control information and planning application service. It published the data in its latest Market Insight Report on May 1.

Overall, there were a total of 67,103 applications submitted through the portal in March 2024, up by 11% on March 2023.

Excluding Works to protected trees and telecoms applications, the total number for March was 60,230 – some 12% higher than in March 2023, which had a total of 53,585.

Regionally, the south west recorded the greatest increase compared to last March with a 14% uptick.

The south east had the lowest increase with a rise of just 8% but still received the highest volume of applications in March, with nearly 13,500.  London had 12,500 submitted, an increase of 13%.

Please contact us to find out more about the new BNG requirements and other planning regulations which need to be taken into account for your project or plans.