Stockport is the town where the council says yes: just 1 in 23 applications is refused. A third the national refusal rate.
Stockport's council decided 3,145 planning applications across 2024 and 2025 and approved 95.7% of them, well above the national average of 87.6%. Just 4.3% were refused, against 12.4% nationally, about 1 in 23 applications. The project mix tracks the national norm closely, led by home extensions. The story here is not what people build, it is how rarely they are turned down.
The year in one line
Stockport approved more than 19 in every 20 applications it decided, refusing just 4.3% against a national 12.4%, one of the most permissive decision records in the country, with an application mix close to the national norm.
What Stockport Is Building
Extensions lead a mix that mirrors the country.
Home extensions were the most common project type submitted to Stockport Council, at 32.6% of all applications, a little above the national 29.1%. Demolition, dormers and loft conversions follow, each close to their national shares. No single category stands out as unusually common: the makeup of what was submitted closely tracks the national picture. What sets the town apart is the outcome, not the project type.
Applications submitted to Stockport Council in 2024-2025, by project type.
Close to the norm
Stockport has no category that runs well above the national rate. Every leading project type sits within a few points of its national share, so the town's application mix is broadly typical for England and Wales.
The council verdict
A near-certain yes.
The council approved 95.7% of the applications it decided and refused just 4.3%, far below the 12.4% national refusal rate. About 1 in 23 applications was turned down. The high pass rate is driven by a mix of projects that closely match what councils across England routinely approve.
About 1 in 23 Stockport applications was turned down.
refused, against a 12.4% national rate. About 1 in 23 applications is turned down in Stockport, one of the lower refusal rates on record.
Stockport vs The National Norm
A typical mix, an untypical outcome.
Set Stockport's application mix against the national average and most categories line up closely. Home extensions run a little ahead of the national share. The town does less of several smaller categories: retrospective work runs at nearly half the national rate, demolition and change of use to residential are both below average. The standout is not in this chart, it is the refusal rate.
of decided applications were approved, against 87.6% nationally. Stockport turns down work less often than almost any comparable town.
Each bar is Stockport's share of applications submitted to the council; the marker is the national share. The mix is close to the norm; the outcome is not.
Meanwhile, the market
Prices climbed alongside the building work.
Permission is easy to win here, and prices have moved with the building work: the average Stockport home rose sharply over the latest full year.
Stockport's planning data tells a clear story. People here submit much the same projects as people everywhere else, but the council says yes far more often, refusing fewer than 1 in 23 applications against a national 1 in 8. Owners also tend to seek consent first rather than build and apply later. For anyone planning work in Stockport, the odds of approval are about as favourable as they get.
Where the numbers come from
Planning Data
Applications submitted to Stockport Council in 2025 (and the 2024-2025 pooled window for category shares), classified from each application's published description. Shares are each category as a percentage of all applications in scope.
Decision Rates
Approval rate is approvals as a share of approvals plus refusals, computed over the 2024-2025 pooled window. The national benchmarks are computed the same way across all decided applications in England and Wales.
Sales Data
HM Land Registry Price Paid Data for the Stockport post town, the latest full year's completions, with growth measured against the previous year.
The Real Applications
Open the planning applications behind the numbers.
These are real applications decided in the Stockport Council area, from extensions and HMO conversions to a handful of the rare refusals. Open any one to see its full record.
31 Russell Avenue, High Lane SK6 8DT
A single-storey rear and part side extension, the most common project type in Stockport, was granted.
See this property's full record12 Station Road, Reddish SK5 6LT
A home was approved for conversion into a house in multiple occupation, typical of the area's change-of-use activity.
See this property's full record18 Gorsey Brow, Romiley SK6 3BQ
Permission was given for a basement conversion together with a rear extension to the property.
See this property's full record78 Valley Road, Bramhall SK7 2NL
A plan for a single-storey rear extension was turned down, one of the roughly 1 in 23 applications the council refused.
See this property's full record73a Shaw Heath SK2 6QP
A proposal to turn vacant retail and flats above into an eight-bedroom HMO was refused.
See this property's full record15 St Matthews Road SK3 9EZ
A retrospective bid to keep a former home in use as short-term holiday accommodation was rejected.
See this property's full recordCurious about a home in Stockport?
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