If you own a plot in London and are wondering whether a home or two could go on it, the borough matters more than almost anything else you can check in advance. We read the decisions on every small housing scheme, one to nine homes, that London councils decided from January 2021, and ranked the boroughs by how often they said yes.
How to read the ranking
We counted decided applications where the applicant's planning form declared between one and nine net new homes, and counted how many were approved. A borough needs enough decisions for the percentage to mean something, so we only rank boroughs with at least 100 decisions. Across all of them, London approved 48 per cent.
The boroughs that approve most
- Merton: 71 per cent approved (282 of 399)
- Westminster: 65 per cent (275 of 422)
- Camden: 62 per cent (116 of 186)
- Ealing: 59 per cent (824 of 1,390)
- Enfield: 59 per cent (335 of 568)
- Redbridge: 57 per cent (430 of 750)
- Southwark: 53 per cent (125 of 236)
- Islington: 52 per cent (118 of 227)
- Lewisham: 52 per cent (242 of 469)
- Bexley: 50 per cent (242 of 485)
The middle
Richmond upon Thames (46 per cent), Greenwich and Hackney (45), Bromley (42), Hillingdon and Hounslow (42), and Barnet (41) all sit a little below the London figure. In these boroughs a well-prepared scheme gets through more often than not on the right plot, but a speculative one does not.
The boroughs that approve least
- Sutton: 40 per cent (107 of 268)
- Brent: 39 per cent (244 of 630)
- Kingston upon Thames: 38 per cent (92 of 244)
- Barking and Dagenham: 37 per cent (99 of 266)
- Harrow: 37 per cent (176 of 478)
- Lambeth: 34 per cent (64 of 190)
- Croydon: 30 per cent (207 of 690)
- Havering: 30 per cent (42 of 139)
What the ranking does not tell you
A borough rate is an average over every kind of site. A plot with its own street frontage, in a street that already has a mix of building heights, can do well in a borough that refuses most backland schemes. We show the district-level picture on every London postcode page; if you are in a low-approval borough, the page for your district will show whether the refusals are concentrated in one kind of scheme.
Four boroughs, Tower Hamlets, Newham, Wandsworth and Haringey, are not yet in our decision data and are not ranked. Boroughs with fewer than 100 decisions in the period (Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea, the City of London and Waltham Forest) show high or low rates on small numbers, so we have left them out of the ranking rather than overstate them.
What to do with it
If your borough is near the top, the free check on your plot is worth doing now. If it is near the bottom, the check matters even more, because the answer on your specific plot, not the borough average, decides whether to apply, sell to someone who will, or wait.
Figures: decided planning applications since 1 January 2021 from the councils' own registers, joined to the applicant's planning form; counts, not estimates.
Own land somewhere in particular? The Land by postcode pages show recent sales, planning designations and the deciding council for each district.
More articles
How long does planning take in London for a small scheme?
The median small housing scheme in London takes 92 days to decide, from 57 days in Barking and Dagenham to 329 in Camden.
How many homes should you apply for on your London plot?
Across London, one home, two to three homes and four to nine homes are approved at similar rates, but a few boroughs behave very differently.
Where do I start with planning on my London land?
A seven-step order of play for a London landowner who thinks a plot might take a home or two: constraints, precedent, access, route and council.
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