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

Submitting a planning application in Blaby and assuming it'll sail through is one of the most common mistakes homeowners make. The district looks straightforward on the surface — but the gap between what you think is permitted and what actually gets approved can be surprisingly wide. Tools like WhatCanIBuild exist precisely because that gap trips up so many people.

"Most of Blaby is fine" — is it, though?

That's what a lot of homeowners assume. And for some projects, on some streets, they're right. But Blaby's 11 conservation areas don't just affect obvious things like roof materials or window styles — they can reach into decisions about extensions, outbuildings, and even boundary treatments in ways most people don't anticipate.

The tricky part? Conservation area boundaries aren't always where you'd expect them to be. A road that looks entirely residential might straddle a boundary, meaning two neighbours with near-identical houses face completely different rules.

Listed buildings and the properties around them

With 196 listed buildings recorded across the district, there's a reasonable chance your property — or one nearby — is affected. Most homeowners know that a listed building itself carries restrictions. Far fewer realise that works to an unlisted property in the curtilage of, or adjacent to, a listed building can also attract additional scrutiny.

If you're in the LE2, LE3, LE18 or LE19 postcodes especially, it's worth understanding exactly where your property sits before you commit to plans or pay the £548 application fee.

Article 4 directions and why they change everything

Article 4 directions are the planning rule that most homeowners have never heard of until it's too late. They remove certain permitted development rights in specific areas — meaning things that would normally not need planning permission suddenly do.

Blaby District Council can apply these directions at a street or area level, which means your immediate neighbour might have different rights to you. There's no simple way to know whether one applies to your property without checking your specific address.

What actually predicts approval in Blaby?

National approval rates tell you almost nothing useful. What matters is how similar applications — same project type, same area, similar constraints — have fared on streets like yours. That's a very different question from "does Blaby approve most applications?"

The best way to get a real sense of your odds is to look at what's actually been approved and refused nearby, and why those decisions went the way they did. WhatCanIBuild surfaces exactly that — neighbour approvals, refusals, and the specific reasons behind them — so you can see what your application is actually up against before you commit.

The £548 question

Blaby's householder application fee is £548. That's before any design or agent costs. Most refusals come down to details that felt minor at the planning stage — orientation, materials, proximity to boundaries, overlooking — but that local decision history would have flagged in advance.

Knowing you're in a conservation area is one thing. Knowing what that actually means for a rear extension on your specific plot, based on what's been approved and refused nearby, is something else entirely. That's what WhatCanIBuild gives you before you spend anything.