UK Planning Application Status Codes Explained

Why status codes are inconsistent

UK planning application data comes from over 300 local planning authorities, each using different portal software. Idox, Northgate, Civica, and others all have slightly different vocabulary for the same underlying states. PlanWire normalises these into a consistent set of values so your code doesn't need to handle "Refused" vs "Refusal" vs "Planning Permission Refused" as separate cases.

The full status reference

Status value	Type	What it means
Pending	In progress	Application received and registered, awaiting officer assessment. The most common status for recent submissions.
Pending Consideration	In progress	Under active review — case officer assigned, consultation period may be open. Functionally the same as Pending on most portals.
Approved	Decided	Planning permission granted. May be subject to conditions. Check the decision notice for condition details.
Refused	Decided	Planning permission refused. Applicant has 6 months to appeal to the Planning Inspectorate.
Withdrawn	Terminal	Applicant withdrew the application before a decision was issued. Often happens when refusal looks likely.
Invalid	Terminal	Application returned as invalid — missing documents, wrong fee, or incomplete information. Does not start the statutory clock.
Appeal Lodged	In progress	Applicant has appealed a refusal or non-determination to the Planning Inspectorate. LPA's decision is now under review.
Appeal Allowed	Decided	The Planning Inspectorate overturned the LPA refusal. Planning permission is now granted.
Appeal Dismissed	Decided	Appeal rejected. Refusal upheld. The development cannot proceed as proposed.
No Objection	Decided	Used mainly for prior approval and permitted development applications — the LPA has no objection. Effectively approved.
Prior Approval Required	In progress	LPA determined that prior approval is needed and has triggered the 28/56-day assessment period.
Prior Approval Not Required	Decided	LPA confirmed the development can proceed under permitted development rights without formal approval.
Granted	Decided	Variant of Approved used by some portals, particularly for listed building consent and prior approvals.
Conditions Discharged	Decided	Pre-commencement conditions on a previously approved application have been formally discharged by the LPA.
Split Decision	Other	Part of the application was approved, part refused. Common for outline applications with multiple plots.
Not Required	Other	Determination of lawfulness — the LPA confirmed no planning permission is needed for the proposed use or works.

Active vs. terminal statuses

For most applications you'll want to distinguish between applications that are still live and those that are concluded. A simple classification:

Active (in-progress): Pending, Pending Consideration, Appeal Lodged, Prior Approval Required
Decided: Approved, Refused, Granted, Appeal Allowed, Appeal Dismissed, No Objection, Prior Approval Not Required, Conditions Discharged, Split Decision, Not Required
Terminal (no decision): Withdrawn, Invalid

Querying by status in PlanWire

The status parameter accepts any of the normalised values above:

bash · filter by status
# All recent approvals in a postcode area
curl "https://api.planwire.io/v1/applications?postcode_prefix=E1&status=Approved&days=30" \
  -H "X-API-Key: your_api_key"

# All pending applications in a specific council
curl "https://api.planwire.io/v1/applications?council_id=hackney&status=Pending" \
  -H "X-API-Key: your_api_key"

# Multiple statuses: pass comma-separated
curl "https://api.planwire.io/v1/applications?status=Approved,Refused&days=7" \
  -H "X-API-Key: your_api_key"

Decision rates by application type

As a rough baseline from national statistics: householder applications are approved ~85% of the time. Full planning applications run ~75%. Major applications (10+ dwellings or 1,000m² commercial) have more variable approval rates by council — some LPAs are significantly more restrictive than others.

You can use PlanWire to calculate approval rates for specific councils or postcode areas and build this into your site assessment or due diligence workflows.

A note on raw portal data

Before normalisation, councils use inconsistent wording. Idox-based portals typically use "Application Permitted" for approvals; some Northgate portals say "Planning Permission Granted". A few councils append dates: "Approved 14/02/2026". PlanWire maps all of these to the normalised values in the table above, so you don't need to handle council-specific quirks in your own code.

If you encounter a status value not in this list in a PlanWire API response, it means we received an unusual raw value that hasn't been mapped yet. Let us know and we'll add it.