How likely is my planning application to get approved in Adur?

Submitting a planning application in Adur and wondering whether it'll get approved? Most homeowners start with a gut feeling — "it's just an extension, it'll be fine" — and end up surprised. The reality is that approval odds in Adur vary significantly depending on factors specific to your property, not just the general rules. WhatCanIBuild can show you what's actually been approved and refused near you, so you're not guessing.

Your address matters more than you think

Adur District runs from Shoreham-by-Sea through Southwick and into Lancing and Worthing's fringes — and the planning rules aren't uniform across any of it. A homeowner in one part of BN43 might face entirely different restrictions to someone two streets away. Adur has 9 Article 4 directions affecting specific streets, which remove permitted development rights that most homeowners assume they have. Most people don't realise these exist until their application hits a problem.

If your property sits within one of Adur's 7 conservation areas, the question isn't just whether you need permission — it's whether what you're proposing fits the character of that area. That's a judgement call, and it goes against you more often than homeowners expect.

The South Downs complication

Adur borders the South Downs National Park, and properties in or near that boundary sit on Article 1(5) land. This is one of the most misunderstood planning designations — it doesn't just restrict what you can build without permission, it changes the threshold for what triggers a full application in the first place. If you're not certain whether your property falls within this zone, that uncertainty is already a risk worth resolving before you spend £548 on an application fee.

What approval odds actually depend on

Here's what most homeowners don't account for: the council's track record on your specific project type, in your specific area, matters as much as the rules on paper. Two identical extensions — same size, same street — can produce different outcomes depending on how similar applications have been decided nearby, how officers have interpreted local design guidance recently, and what objections have been raised on comparable projects.

That's the gap between knowing you're in a conservation area and knowing what that actually means for your loft conversion, rear extension, or outbuilding. The best way to close that gap is to look at what's actually happened on your street — not what the policy says in theory. WhatCanIBuild pulls together nearby approvals and refusals so you can see the real pattern, not just the rulebook.

Before you apply

The £548 application fee is non-refundable. An 8-week decision window is the target, but applications that run into complications take longer — and some never recover. The best way to protect yourself is to know your actual approval odds before you commit, not after. WhatCanIBuild gives you a property-specific picture: what constraints apply, what's been approved and refused nearby, and what that combination means for your project.