Planning applications in Dacorum

Planning in Dacorum

Dacorum is a lenient place for most home extensions. Over 2023 to 2025, the median householder application took 7.9 weeks to decide, and about 69 in every 100 of the 2,068 decided were settled within 8 weeks.

Dacorum Borough Council has decided more than 84,000 planning applications since 1989, and about 1 in 33 was refused. That is well below the picture across the areas we cover, where about 1 in 7 is refused. Rear extensions are the biggest category with more than 19,000 applications and are refused about 1 in 41 times. Side extensions (more than 12,000 applications) match that at about 1 in 41, front extensions and porches are about 1 in 40 and windows and doors about 1 in 35. If you are weighing up planning permission for an extension in Dacorum, the record is encouraging.

The projects that go less smoothly tend to be the smaller outdoor ones. Garden rooms and outbuildings, with more than 11,000 applications, are refused about 1 in 29 times. Loft conversions and dormers are refused about 1 in 24, fences, walls and gates about 1 in 19, solar panels about 1 in 16 and driveways and dropped kerbs about 1 in 15. All of these are still refused less often than across the areas we cover, where lofts are refused about 1 in 5, but they are refused more often than the council’s average, so it helps to see what was approved on nearby streets before you draw anything up.

When Dacorum does refuse an application, about half of the 739 recent refusals we read pointed to size, bulk or design, and a little over a third to the look of the street or area. About a quarter mentioned parking, access or road safety. Around one in five each raised heritage, the green belt, or not enough information being supplied, and about one in six mentioned neighbours’ light, privacy or outlook. The area has 23 conservation areas and 911 listed buildings.

Applications have held level. Dacorum received 2,260 applications in 2025, against an average of 2,272 a year in the three years before, and the busiest year on record was 2021 with 3,192. The refusal rate in 2025, about 1 in 10, was lower than the 1 in 8 of the previous three years.

Figures in this section as of 9 October 2026.