Four things that will ruin your chances of getting planning approval If anyone tells you they can guarantee getting planning permission approved in the UK, they are either lying to you or they don’t understand how the system works. Ive been a self employed Architect in the UK since 2009, specialising in altering and extending private homes. In that time Ive lodged 120 planning applications and only 8 were refused. Some people think the UK planning system is broken, or flawed,