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

Planning permission in Worthing sounds simple until you start digging. Whether your application gets approved — and how quickly — depends on a combination of factors that are almost impossible to untangle without looking at your specific property. Most homeowners assume the rules are the same everywhere in the borough. They're not, and that assumption is expensive. WhatCanIBuild exists precisely because the gap between what you think applies and what actually applies to your address can make or break a project.

The borough isn't one place — it's dozens

Worthing Borough Council covers a relatively compact area, but within it the planning landscape is fragmented in ways most homeowners never see coming. There are 26 conservation areas spread across the borough, and if your property sits within one, external alterations that would be waved through elsewhere can suddenly require full planning permission — or get refused entirely.

Then there are the 8 Article 4 directions affecting specific streets. These remove permitted development rights that homeowners in other parts of Worthing take for granted. Most people don't know they're on an Article 4 street until they've already committed to a project.

And that's before you factor in whether your property is one of the 434 listed buildings in the borough, each carrying its own layer of consent requirements that operate entirely separately from standard planning rules.

The South Downs factor

Worthing borders the South Downs National Park, and some properties fall within or are adjacent to what's classified as Article 1(5) land. This matters because permitted development rights — the things you thought you could do without asking — are curtailed in these areas in ways that don't apply to the rest of the borough.

If you're near the northern edge of Worthing, you might be on Article 1(5) land without realising it. The postcode isn't a reliable guide. The specific address is what matters.

What your neighbours got approved (and refused) tells you more than the rulebook

The rules tell you what's theoretically possible. The planning history of your street tells you what actually happens. Two identical extensions proposed on the same road can have very different outcomes depending on officer interpretation, local precedent, and how previous applications were framed.

This is the part most homeowners miss entirely. Knowing you're in a conservation area is one thing. Knowing what Worthing Borough Council has actually approved and refused for properties like yours, on streets like yours, in the past two years — that's the intelligence that changes your decision-making.

WhatCanIBuild surfaces exactly that: not just the constraints that apply to your address, but what's been approved and refused nearby, and what that means for your specific project type and approval odds.

The £548 question

A householder application in Worthing costs £548. That's before any professional fees, drawings, or pre-application advice. Submitting blind — without knowing how your property's specific combination of constraints affects your chances — is a risk most people take because they don't know there's an alternative.

The best way to understand your real approval odds before you commit anything is to check your address against the full picture of what's actually happened in your area. WhatCanIBuild gives you that picture in minutes.