How likely is my planning application to get approved in Reigate and Banstead?

Planning permission in Reigate and Banstead feels like it should be straightforward — you submit an application, you wait eight weeks, you get an answer. But the real question isn't whether the council approves applications. It's whether they'll approve yours, for your project, on your specific property. That's a very different thing — and WhatCanIBuild exists precisely because the gap between those two questions is where most homeowners get caught out.

The borough looks consistent. Your street probably isn't.

Reigate and Banstead covers a wide range of property types and planning environments — from suburban streets in Banstead and Redhill to villages sitting within or alongside the Surrey Hills AONB. Postcodes like RH2, KT20, and SM7 can contain completely different planning realities within a few hundred metres of each other. A rear extension that sailed through approval in one part of the borough may have been refused in a neighbouring street. Most homeowners don't realise just how localised these decisions can be.

Conservation area status is a good example. There are 19 conservation areas across the borough, and external alterations that would be unremarkable elsewhere can become contentious inside those boundaries. But knowing you're near a conservation area and knowing what that actually means for your specific project — and how the council has historically responded to similar applications nearby — are completely different things.

Permitted development isn't a free pass here

One of the most common assumptions homeowners make is that if a project falls within permitted development, there's nothing to worry about. In Reigate and Banstead, that assumption can be expensive.

Properties on Article 1(5) land — which includes areas in and around the Surrey Hills AONB — have restricted permitted development rights. Works that would typically not require any application can require full planning permission here. And with 457 listed buildings recorded across the borough, any property that's listed or adjacent to one operates under a different set of rules entirely.

The problem isn't just knowing which category applies to you. It's understanding what your specific combination of constraints means for the type of project you're planning. That combination is almost never the same twice.

What actually predicts approval?

General approval rates don't tell you much. What actually matters is how the council has responded to projects like yours — same type, similar location, comparable constraints. Have extensions on your road been approved or pushed back? Have any been refused, and if so, why? Were there conditions attached that changed the scope of what was built?

This is the layer of intelligence most homeowners never access before spending £548 on a householder application and waiting eight weeks for an answer. WhatCanIBuild surfaces exactly this — what's been approved and refused near you, and what your property's specific constraint profile means for your chances.

If you're planning a project in Reigate and Banstead, the best way to understand your real approval odds isn't to guess based on what a neighbour did, or assume the rules that apply to other properties apply to yours. It's to check what the data actually shows for your address.

WhatCanIBuild gives you that picture before you commit time, money, or hope to an application.