Sutton Coldfield is an extension town: home extensions make up 55% of planning applications. Nearly twice the national share.
Birmingham City Council received 946 planning applications in the Sutton Coldfield area in 2025 and decided 1,796 across 2024 and 2025, approving 86.0% of them. The refusal rate of 14.0% is broadly in line with the national 12.4%. The town's real story is its application mix: home extensions made up 55.2% of every application submitted, against a national share of 29.1%. This is the planning signature of an established suburb where owners adapt larger homes rather than move.
The year in one line
Sutton Coldfield files home extensions at 1.9 times the national rate, accounting for more than half of all applications, while its refusal rate of 14.0% sits close to the national 12.4%, about 1 in 7 rather than 1 in 8.
What Sutton Coldfield Is Building
An extension town, by a wide margin.
Home extensions dominated the application list submitted to Birmingham in 2025, at 55.2% of all applications, nearly twice the national share of 29.1%. Roof projects follow: dormers made up 10.3% of applications and loft conversions 4.2%, both well above their national shares. Garage conversions added a further 4.7%. This is the application mix of an established suburb of larger homes, where owners reshape what they own rather than move.
Planning applications submitted to Birmingham in the Sutton Coldfield area, 2024-2025 pooled, by project type.
The extension effect
Sutton Coldfield files home extensions at 1.9 times the national rate, dormers at 1.7 times, garage conversions at 1.9 times and loft conversions at 1.6 times. The town's planning work is overwhelmingly about adapting existing homes.
The council verdict
A broadly standard verdict.
Birmingham approved 86.0% of the Sutton Coldfield applications it decided across 2024 and 2025, and refused 14.0%. That refusal rate sits modestly above the national 12.4%, about 1 in 7 rather than 1 in 8, so permission here is slightly harder to secure than the national average, but not dramatically so.
About 1 in 7 Sutton Coldfield applications was turned down.
of applications refused across 2024-2025, against a national rate of 12.4%, about 1 in 7 rather than 1 in 8. The approval rate is 86.0%.
Sutton Coldfield vs The National Norm
A town that extends, not rebuilds.
Set Sutton Coldfield's application mix against the national average and one pattern dominates: home extensions run at 1.9 times the national share, with dormers and garage conversions both close to twice the norm. The categories the town does less of confirm the same picture: demolition runs at less than half the national share and retrospective work, building first and applying later, is less than half the national rate. Owners here adapt existing homes rather than tear down and start again.
Sutton Coldfield files home extensions at nearly twice the national rate, and they make up 55.2% of every application submitted to Birmingham. No other category comes close.
Each bar is Sutton Coldfield's share of applications; the marker is the national share. Home extensions are the town's defining outlier.
Meanwhile, the market
Prices held up alongside the building work.
Permission may be slightly harder to win here than the national average, but the market stayed firm: Sutton Coldfield remains one of the more sought-after places to own a home in the West Midlands.
Sutton Coldfield's planning data tells a clear story. This is an extension town: more than half of all applications submitted to Birmingham are home extensions, running at nearly twice the national share, with dormers and garage conversions well above the norm on top. Owners of larger suburban homes here adapt what they have rather than move. The refusal rate is close to the national average, so the volume of extension work is the real distinguishing feature of this market.
Where the numbers come from
Planning Data
Applications submitted to Birmingham City Council in the Sutton Coldfield area in 2025 (volume) and 2024-2025 pooled (rates and 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. 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 Sutton Coldfield 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 submitted in the Sutton Coldfield area, from the home extensions that dominate the list to a listed-building consent and a set of refusals. Open any one to see its full record.
73 Grosvenor Close B75 6RP
Two-storey and single-storey rear extensions were approved, the kind of home enlargement that makes up the majority of Sutton Coldfield's planning list.
See this property's full record10a Ladywood Road B74 2SN
A two-storey rear extension paired with a loft conversion was granted, combining two of the town's most common project types in one scheme.
See this property's full recordAshleigh Farm House Farthing Lane, Curdworth B76 9HE
A single-storey rear extension was approved to form a self-contained granny annexe alongside the main house.
See this property's full record105 Lichfield Road B74 2RS
Listed-building consent was granted to install replacement windows on a protected property, one of the heritage cases that sit apart from the extension mainstream.
See this property's full record64 Bankside Crescent B74 2HZ
A retrospective bid to keep a front single-storey extension already built was turned down, one of the 14% of applications Birmingham refused.
See this property's full record18 Newick Avenue B74 3DA
A plan to demolish an existing home and build a four-bedroom self-build house in its place was refused, the kind of teardown this town files at less than half the national rate.
See this property's full recordCurious about a home in Sutton Coldfield?
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