Planning applications in Moray

Planning in Moray

Moray is lenient when it comes to planning permission, and several kinds of home improvement were never refused at all. Of the more than 4,300 applications decided since 2020, about 1 in 21 was refused, against about 1 in 7 across the areas we cover.

Among the common jobs, none of the 128 rear extensions, 72 loft conversions and dormers, 32 front extensions and porches or 19 side extensions was refused, and neither were any of the 87 solar panel applications. Counts for several of these are small, so treat them as encouraging rather than guaranteed.

Garden rooms and outbuildings are the most common kind of work, with 680 applications, and about 1 in 16 was refused, more often than the council’s own average but far below the national picture. Fences, walls and gates are the sharpest example, refused about 1 in 9 times from 124 applications. Windows and doors, with 376 applications, are about 1 in 20, and driveways and dropped kerbs about 1 in 24. If you are planning an outbuilding or a boundary change, look at what has been approved nearby before drawing anything up.

When Moray does refuse, the reasons are spread widely. About four in ten refusals mention size, bulk or design, and about three in ten mention neighbours’ light, privacy or outlook, or building outside towns and villages. Highways, covering parking, access and road safety, come up in about a quarter, and not enough information supplied in just over two in ten. The look of the street or area appears in about a quarter, heritage in just under two in ten and trees in a little under two in ten.

Application numbers have fallen from the busiest year, 2020, which had 881. There were 668 in 2025, against about 800 a year in the three years before, and the refusal rate was about the same as before, at about 1 in 24 compared with about 1 in 23.

Figures in this section as of 9 October 2026.