IN Brief:
- Planning permission was sought for 335,387 new housing units in England during 2025, the strongest year since 2020.
- Submissions accelerated through the year, with H2 exceeding H1 by nearly 72,000 units, an increase of about 51%.
- The index also notes high attrition between application and completion, with viability and infrastructure constraints still slowing delivery.
Planning permission was sought for 335,387 new housing units in England during 2025, marking the strongest year for residential submissions since 2020 and taking the annual total to a decade high. The uplift was more than 120,000 units above 2024 levels, with the pace of submissions increasing as the year progressed.
The second half of 2025 outperformed the first by nearly 72,000 units, an increase of approximately 51%, pointing to a pipeline that strengthened rather than tailed off. Q4 was the high-water mark, pushing the annual total to its highest point in ten years on the same dataset.
The figures sit within a dataset drawn from applications submitted via Planning Portal, the platform used for roughly 95% of planning applications made to local authorities in England. On that basis, the index is treated as an early indicator of development intent, rather than a measure of approvals, starts, or completions.
Regionally, the index records a percentage increase in new homes applied for across every English region in 2025 compared with 2024. Alongside overall volumes, the index also tracks affordable housing submissions. It reports a five-year quarterly peak for affordable housing applications in Q4 2025, and records 2025 as the highest annual total for affordable housing submissions in the last five years.
Behind the uplift, the index frames a familiar constraint: rising submission volumes do not guarantee delivery. It highlights high rates of attrition later in the housebuilding process, with schemes stalling before completion under viability pressures, infrastructure constraints, and shifting economic conditions. The result is a front-end pipeline that looks healthier, but still exposed to the same bottlenecks between consent, mobilisation, and build-out.
Geoff Keal, CEO, TerraQuest, said: “Housing submissions are returning to levels not seen for several years, which is a genuinely encouraging sign that confidence is rebuilding across the sector. But intent alone isn’t enough – the focus must now be on ensuring viable sites can move from application through to construction, so this renewed momentum results in homes being built.”
The increase in submissions also lands amid a national political focus on housing supply, including a target of delivering 1.5 million new homes by the end of the current parliamentary term in 2029. For smaller developers and local builders, the balance of work between strategic sites and a broader spread of smaller schemes remains a live issue in delivery capacity and build-out pace.
Brian Berry, Chief Executive, Federation of Master Builders, said: “The rising number of planning applications for new build units is positive, it clearly shows a level of trust in the Government’s plans for new housing. FMB data has shown confidence among SMEs is on the rise for 2026 – so clearly a government that is pro-building can make a difference, even if we don’t fully know the impact of the changes to the planning system.”
Whether the 2025 submission surge converts into starts at scale will be visible in the next stages of the pipeline, including consent rates, pre-commencement discharge, and infrastructure delivery timelines, where delays tend to accumulate quietly until programmes slip.
