Appeal Survival Rates
Not every refusal reason is equally fatal. We read thousands of PINS decision letters and measured which contested issues actually survive appeal — nationally and in your authority — plus how often a revised resubmission succeeds instead.
Which refusal reasons survive appeal on change of use in Bath and North East Somerset Council?
Share of decided appeals raising each issue that were allowed. Higher = softer refusal reason. Authority rates shown where at least 10 decided appeals raise the issue; grey bars are the national baseline.
| Refusal reason | Bath and North East Somerset Council | National | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Green Belt | no indexed appeals | 31.8% (n=274) | |
| Residential amenity (privacy, light, outlook, noise) | no indexed appeals | 30.0% (n=952) | |
| Heritage (listed buildings, conservation areas) | n=1 — too few to rate | 29.8% (n=326) | |
| Trees / ecology | no indexed appeals | 29.5% (n=227) | |
| Overdevelopment / cramming | no indexed appeals | 28.6% (n=28) | |
| Principle of development / location | no indexed appeals | 28.5% (n=302) | |
| Character & appearance / design | n=1 — too few to rate | 27.8% (n=996) | |
| Highway safety / parking | no indexed appeals | 27.1% (n=462) | |
| Flood risk / drainage | no indexed appeals | 26.0% (n=231) | |
| Standard of accommodation / space standards | no indexed appeals | 25.4% (n=484) | |
| Planning obligations / s.106 | no indexed appeals | 23.1% (n=52) |
Derived from PINS decision letters with extracted text (not every appeal is indexed). A reason being "raised" means the Inspector identified it among the main issues — observational data, not a prediction for any individual scheme.
Refused? Resubmitting often beats appealing
Measured from refusals in our decision corpus that were followed by a fresh application at the same address.
69.1%of first resubmissions approved nationally (n=1241) ~86 days
typical refusal-to-redecision gap
Not enough measured resubmissions in this authority yet to quote a local rate.
The designation reality check
Measured approval rates for decided applications inside each designation vs the same authorities outside it. The gap is smaller than most people assume — the risk is usually the proposal, not the postcode.
| Designation | Approval inside | Approval outside | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conservation area | 87.4% (n=5,433) | 83.1% | +4.3 points |
| Article 4 area | 82.7% (n=6,867) | 85.5% | -2.8 points |
| Green Belt | 77.6% (n=2,273) | 85.4% | -7.8 points |
National figures across authorities with a full decisions stream; conservation-area and Article 4 rows use precisely-located applications only. Observational, not causal — the mix of what people apply for differs inside designations.