Forty planning applications are being made every day for work that has already been started or even completed.
In the last three years 39,200 retrospective planning applications were filed, according to data collected by Churchill Home Insurance via a Freedom of Information request.
Around one in eight of those – 4,758 – were rejected, leaving homeowners little choice but to appeal or tear down their extensions or even entire houses.
Retrospective planning applications were most likely to be rejected in Wales, where 28% were refused. In London that figure was 21%. The least likely rejections were in Scotland and Northern Ireland where just 3% were rejected.
