LPA Profile

What we hold on a single planning authority: appeal behaviour, what they refuse on, which policies they cite, and how current their local plan is. For the national league table and 47-year statistical history, see Council Performance. New: which refusal reasons survive appeal here — measured from real Inspectorate decision letters.

Dorset Council

GSS E06000059 · Portal: cced (untested) · council register

Applications we hold

3,579

2026-01-07 – 2026-10-23

Refusal rate (our sample)

6.8%

243 of 3,579 — a sample, not the register

Appeals overturned

—

no PINS appeals matched

Local plan age

—

adoption date not published

Official statistics — is development moving through the system?

MHCLG quarterly planning returns (PS1/PS2), last 4 quarters 2025 Q3 to 2026 Q2, and the government's latest Housing Delivery Test. These are the authority's own statutory returns, not our scrape.

Applications received

2,812

in the window

Applications decided

2,708

in the window

Approval rate

91.7%

2,483 granted, 225 refused · national median refusal 11.6%

Refusal rate rank 21 of 63 unitary authorities (1 = fewest refusals) · peer median 10.6%

Decided within time

93.7%

rank 117 of 307 reporting authorities · national median 91.4%

Rank 23 of 63 unitary authorities · peer median 90.6%

Peer ranks compare only unitary authorities with more than 50 decisions in the window, the same floor as the national rank. A rank among peers is the fairer read: types of authority carry very different caseloads.

Performance by development type

Type	Decisions	Approved	In time
Major	92	88.0%	100.0%
Minor	747	86.2%	90.5%
Other	1,869	94.1%	—
of which householder	1,222	95.7%	96.5%

"In time" = within the statutory period or an agreed extension, excluding prior approvals. "Other" covers everything that is neither major nor minor; householder figures are measured against the 8-week period.

Applications through the system

Last 8 quarters held

▬ received ▬ decided

Housing Delivery Test

HDT 2025 measurement, homes delivered against requirement over 2022/23 to 2024/25

88%

Action plan

Delivery 85–94%: the authority must publish an action plan. No presumption or buffer consequence.

Where these figures come from. Each dataset below is the publisher's own file, loaded unchanged; rows are matched to this authority by its ONS code (E06000059). Missing values are shown as "—" and are never estimated or filled from another period.

Dataset	Publisher	Covers this authority	Loaded	Official source
Planning application decisions (PS2)	MHCLG	2019 Q2 to 2026 Q2 (29 quarters)	25 Oct 2026 · 68,583 rows nationally	Live tables
Planning application flow (PS1)	MHCLG	2019 Q2 to 2026 Q2 (29 quarters)	25 Oct 2026 · 42,861 rows nationally	Live tables
Housing Delivery Test 2025	MHCLG	2022/23 to 2024/25	18 Aug 2026	Measurement

Open Government Licence v3.0. The MHCLG tables are reloaded every Sunday; the loaded date is the last successful run. Full 47-year history and national ranking →

Development plan

Dorset Council Local Plan 2026-2043
Adoption date not published in the national register · plan period 2026-01-01–2043-01-01
Plan documents

National statistics for this authority →

Councils with data on file

Charnwood (3929) Leeds (3678) Dorset (3579) Buckinghamshire (3492) Bromley (3100) Barnet (2921) Durham (2838) Winchester (2559) BCP (2511) Croydon (2494) Bath (2469) Ealing (2419) Westminster (2278) Cotswold (2200) Bradford (2185) Dudley (2170) Islington (2163) Brent (2153) Newcastle upon Tyne (2124) Cornwall (2084) Chelmsford (2081) Carmarthenshire (2023) Lambeth (2022) Bexley (2013)

On the numbers. The refusal rate, officers and agents here are computed from the applications PlanningCore has collected for this authority — for most councils that is a recent sample rather than the full register, and the date range above tells you which. The appeal overturn rate comes from Planning Inspectorate decisions and covers a much longer period. Use the national statistics page for complete, official volumes.

About this tool: LPA Profile

Deep-dive authority analysis — approval rates by type, refusal reason clustering, appeal overturn rates, average decision times, and strictness rankings.

When to use it

Use to understand how your LPA behaves. Every council has different tendencies — some are design-focused, some are policy-strict, some are more pragmatic.

Policy and guidance it draws on

MHCLG planning statistics, appeal decision analysis

Part of Authority Intelligence

Use these tools to understand how your Local Planning Authority behaves — what they approve, what they refuse, how often appeals succeed, and what strategy gives you the best chance. This is behavioural intelligence, not just policy research.