BLOGS

Two systems, one country

The phrase "levelling-up" became something of a political touchstone in the early 2020s. By 2026, the policy rhetoric has shifted — but the structural divergence it sought to address has not. England's planning system is quietly telling a revealing story: not through grand declarations, but through the granular arithmetic of decisions made, applications submitted, and prices paid.

REalyse data covering planning decisions issued over the past two years paints a picture that is more nuanced — and in some ways more troubling — than the usual north-south caricature. The north approves proportionally more. The south applies disproportionately more. And the price gap between them remains as wide as ever.

The approval rate paradox

When measured purely by approval rate, northern England performs strongly. Yorkshire and the Humber recorded an approval rate of 69.2% across nearly 4,900 applications decided in the two years to mid-2026. The North East reached 69.1%, and the North West 66.1%. The East Midlands led all English regions at 71.6%.

Compare that to London, where just 56.4% of decided applications were granted — the lowest of any English region — across more than 9,100 cases. The South East, at 62.9%, and East of England at 61.0%, also trail their northern counterparts in grant rates.

On the surface, this looks like a planning system that is more receptive to development in the north. Local planning authorities (LPAs) in areas like Yorkshire, Lancashire and County Durham are saying yes to a greater share of what lands on their desks. For developers and investors looking for consented land with less friction, these figures are worth sitting up for.

But volume tells a different story

Here is where the paradox sharpens. The South East alone generated 12,066 decided applications in the same period — almost eight times the North East's 1,577. London processed 9,186. Even the East of England, with 8,695 decisions, dwarfs any northern region.

In raw terms, the south is driving a far larger share of planning activity. Higher approval rates in the north are, in part, a statistical artefact of a thinner application pipeline. Fewer schemes are being brought forward, meaning LPAs are processing a smaller and arguably more pre-screened set of proposals.

The question is not just "who is approving?" but "who is attracting enough developer confidence to submit in the first place?" And on that measure, the gravitational pull of southern markets — particularly London and the South East — remains dominant.

The price gap that drives it all

Beneath the planning data sits the house price differential that explains much of the developer calculus. REalyse transaction data for the two years to June 2026 shows an average sold price of £625,807 in London — more than 3.4 times the North East average of £183,312. The South East averages £413,305; Yorkshire and the Humber £232,848; the North West £239,853.

These are not marginal differences. They represent the gulf in gross development value (GDV) assumptions that developers and their lenders make when assessing viability. A scheme that comfortably stacks up in Surrey may require a fundamentally different financial model — or entirely different land cost expectations — to work in Sunderland or Salford.

This is the structural tension that no planning reform alone can resolve. Even where LPAs in the north are willing to say yes, the GDV headroom to support high levels of affordable housing contribution, infrastructure levy, or Section 106 obligation is more constrained. Developers building at £250/sqft achieved prices face very different negotiating realities than those transacting at £700/sqft in Zone 2.

Affordability pressure and the planning response

The irony is that affordability stress — the gap between local incomes and local prices — is not exclusively a southern problem. Markets in commuter-belt towns around Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield have seen asking prices rise materially over the past four years, driven in part by the post-pandemic redistribution of demand and the continued growth of hybrid working.

REalyse data shows that the North West processed over 4,000 residential planning applications in the past two years, and the region's average sold price has now pushed through £239,000 — levels that were historically associated with the East Midlands or East of England. For first-time buyers in parts of Greater Manchester or Cheshire East, the affordability ratios are beginning to mirror those seen in Bristol or Southampton a decade ago.

Where planning systems have responded to this, it has often been through an increased focus on affordability requirements in local plans — though the viability question continues to dog LPAs trying to secure meaningful proportions of affordable units from private-led schemes.

Land use priorities are shifting — but slowly

Beyond the headline approval rates, the type of development being consented is also diverging. London's planning regime has spent much of the past two years grappling with tall residential schemes, build-to-rent pipeline, and estate regeneration — all of which face prolonged negotiation periods and a more complex political environment. The capital's 56% approval rate reflects not incompetence or obstruction, but the complexity of its development landscape.

Northern cities, by contrast, are increasingly consenting a mix of suburban housing, urban regeneration and brownfield residential — schemes that tend to move through the system more cleanly where policy support exists. Government brownfield release programmes and mayoral combined authority investment zones have added a further policy layer, creating pockets of genuine momentum in places like the Liverpool City Region, West Yorkshire and Tees Valley.

For investors tracking the planning pipeline, the emerging signal is that consented capacity in northern markets is growing — even if the depth of that market has not yet caught up with the south.

What this means for investors and developers

REalyse data allows users to interrogate this divergence at a granular level — down to postcode district, planning authority, and application type. For a regional housebuilder assessing land viability in the M62 corridor, the combination of a 66–69% regional approval rate and an average price point around £240,000 creates a specific set of assumptions to model. For a fund assessing build-to-rent opportunities in Yorkshire, the planning throughput data provides a useful proxy for market receptiveness.

The north-south divide in planning is not simply a story of southern obstruction and northern openness. It is a story of capital flows, GDV assumptions, developer confidence, and the slow-moving alignment between housing need and planning supply. The regions with the greatest affordability pressure — London, the South East, the East of England — are also the regions where planning is most contested. The regions with the greatest planning receptiveness are those where the financial model is hardest to make work at scale.

Outlook

The government's revised National Planning Policy Framework and ongoing local plan reform agenda offer the framework for change. But REalyse data suggests the actual rebalancing of planning activity — and the investment that follows it — is happening incrementally, not overnight.

For those who can identify where approval rates are strong, land values remain achievable, and policy support is aligned, the opportunity exists to move ahead of the mainstream market. That calculus increasingly points toward specific northern districts and midlands cities — but only for those willing to look beyond the headline price gap and into the data beneath it.

The planning system does not create investment appetite on its own. But it can signal where the conditions for it are quietly assembling.