Skip to article

Every path around no

Reconsideration, appeals, and the vanishing refusal

Fighting Back
Illustration for: Every path around no

Summary

Malta's planning system offers at least four distinct mechanisms to reverse a refusal: reconsideration, appeals, deferral, and refiling. Combined, they have overturned or circumvented over 20,000 refusals in the database. Reconsideration alone reversed 6,079 refusals — primarily in the 2000s, when up to 754 refusals per year were overturned. Appeals sent another 8,022 refusals to the Appeals Board. Together with deferrals (90.8% eventually approved) and refiling (74.5% approved), refusal in Malta's planning system is less a final answer than the start of a negotiation.

Key findings

The four paths around no

MechanismRefusals affectedOutcome
Reconsideration (overturned)6,079Original refusal reversed
Appeals Board review8,022Sent to appeals (outcome not always recorded)
Deferral → eventual board decision1,233 refused / 12,143 approved90.8% eventually approved (see "Deferred cases")
Refiling at same site23,571 refiled74.5% of next application approved (see "Refusal is not final")

Reconsideration: the hidden override

Of 6,685 cases where reconsideration overturned the original decision:

  • 6,079 (91%) were refusals that were overturned → effectively approved
  • 545 (8%) were approvals that were overturned → effectively revoked

The reconsideration mechanism overwhelmingly worked in one direction: turning refusals into approvals.

The rise and fall of reconsideration

YearRefusals overturnedUpheld on reconsiderationTotal PA cases
20004111116,730
20015081526,487
20026222166,882
20037542407,279
20047011797,177
20056241958,012
20064822077,913
20073822047,501
20082751375,980
2009131805,689
201037315,252
2011–2025~60 total~8 total—

Reconsideration peaked in 2003 when 754 refusals were overturned — more than 10% of all applications that year. The mechanism then declined sharply and virtually disappeared after 2010. This coincides with the period when approval rates began climbing ("The great regime change of 2011"), suggesting the system shifted from "refuse then reconsider" to "just approve in the first place."

Appeals: 7,949 refusals reviewed

Of the 10,595 cases that went to the Appeals Board / EPRT:

  • 8,022 (76%) had an original decision of "Refuse Permission"
  • 2,111 (20%) had "Grant Permission" (applicants or third parties appealing conditions)

The cumulative effect

For any given refusal in Malta's planning system, the applicant can:

  1. Request reconsideration — of the 8,652 refusals that went through reconsideration (granted-overturning + dismissed-confirmed combined), 6,079 (~70%) were overturned
  2. Appeal to the Appeals Board — 8,022 refusals reviewed
  3. Wait for deferral — if deferred rather than refused, 90.8% eventually approved
  4. Refile at the same site — 74.5% of next applications approved

These paths are not mutually exclusive. An applicant whose refusal survives reconsideration can still appeal, and can still refile. Each mechanism reduces the effective refusal rate further.

What this means for the "real" refusal rate

The official approval rate for PA cases is ~85%. But factoring in:

  • Reconsideration overturning ~6,079 refusals
  • Appeals reviewing ~8,022 refusals
  • Refiling succeeding ~75% of the time

The effective permanent refusal rate — the percentage of applications that are definitively, irrevocably refused with no subsequent approval at the same site — is likely well below the headline 15% refusal figure.

Why this matters

A planning system's legitimacy rests partly on its ability to say "no" and have that decision stick. Malta's system has historically offered multiple mechanisms to reverse refusals, and applicants have used them extensively. The decline of reconsideration after 2010 doesn't mean the system became stricter — the rising approval rates suggest the opposite. The system simply moved the approval earlier in the process, making post-decision reversals unnecessary.

Media sources