A refusal can feel like the end of the road, but it doesn’t have to be. A planning refusal is just one council case officer’s view of one particular proposal, and it often just one step on the process to getting permission for what you want. Don’t panic, and don’t give up.
I have been a planning consultant for twelve (long) years and was a council case officer for twelve years before that. Based on my long experience in the planning system, here is how you respond to a refusal of planning permission, one step at a time.
1. Work out exactly why you were refused
Before you decide anything, you need to understand precisely why the application was refused. The decision notice gives you the bare reasons; the real reasoning sits in the officer’s report that is prepared alongside it, which the council doesn’t usually send you and doesn’t even tell you exists. Reading it properly is the single most important step after a refusal, and it is where you can get a sense of whether the refusal has any justification.
I explain how to find yours and what to look for in this dedicated guide: how to read your officer’s report.
2. Decide: reapply, appeal, or both
Once you know the real reason, you have three broad choices. Reapply if the objection is something you can live with fixing, which is usually the quicker route where a modest change wins a consent. Appeal if you think the council is simply wrong and you don’t want to alter your scheme, in which case an independent inspector decides it afresh. Or do both, and keep two routes open at once.
Which is right depends on your case. Our guide on whether to appeal or reapply walks through how to choose, and what is a planning appeal? explains how the appeal system now works.
3. Don’t be put off by the appeal itself
Appealing is more straightforward than you might think. Since April 2026, most appeals are decided on your application documents plus a short 250-word summary, with no separate statement and, in the great majority of cases, no hearing. Reasonable, well-argued schemes do well. Our guide on how to win a planning appeal explains the process from start to finish, and how to write the 250-word summary covers the one piece of writing that now does the heavy lifting.
4. Get an honest second opinion
You don’t have to work it out alone. An experienced (chartered) town planner will read the officer’s report and the council’s reasons, weigh the strength of the council’s planning policies and tell you straight whether the refusal is likely to stand and how your chances can be improved.
Before anything else, read the decision notice properly. Our guide to how to read your planning refusal notice works through the reasons for refusal and what they tell you about your chances on appeal.
Send us your decision notice and officer’s report and we’ll do exactly that, for free, and set out your options. If it’s worth appealing and the case is reasonably straightforward, our chartered planners will prepare and manage the appeal for a fixed fee of £399. Get in touch – we try to respond within one working day.