"Up and down the country, local planning authorities are preparing themselves to be busier than ever"
- Hugh Gibbs - Searchland
The latest internal data from Searchland has revealed that Cornwall is the nation’s housebuilder hotspot, with its local planning authority receiving more residential planning applications than any other part of the country.
Searchland has analysed its own Great Britain planning application data on a Local Planning Authority level and revealed that Cornwall is the nation’s housebuilder hotspot, having seen more residential planning applications lodged than any other area.
In 2024, British LPAs received a total of 63,529 planning applications for developments of one or more residential dwellings, with Cornwall alone accounting for 2,025 applications.
This makes the South West county by far and away Britain’s housebuilding hotspot.
Not only has Cornwall received the most applications, but it has done so by quite a margin with second place Buckinghamshire LPA receiving 821.
Highland LPA in Scotland received 655 applications, followed by Bristol City (643), Dorset (642), Wiltshire (619), Hounslow (605), Barnet (581), Cheshire East (535), and Shropshire (501).
Biggest annual increases
The planning authority that saw the biggest annual increase in residential planning applications between 2023 and 2024 was Darlington with a jump of 120.6%.
Bristol City saw an increase of 115.1%, and applications in Stevenage climbed by 107.7%.
The number of application submissions almost grew by 75% or more in West Dunbartonshire (83.3%), the Shetland Islands (75.7%), and the City of London (75%).
“Cornwall is by far and away the housebuilding capital of Britain when it comes to planning authority activity over the last year," comments co-founder of Searchland, Hugh Gibbs, "With more than 2,000 residential applications, its LPA is handling more than double the amount received by any other location. And this isn’t an anomaly because Cornwall also saw more than 2,000 submissions in 2023.
"And Cornwall is not alone. Up and down the country, local planning authorities are preparing themselves to be busier than ever. And while not all applications are going to be successful, the Labour government is intent on making sure that planning is granted with more pace and freedom than ever before, which means the coming years should be incredibly fruitful for housebuilders, especially if they focus their attention on these 10 local areas.”
