London Borough of Barking and Dagenham

How Barking and Dagenham decides on small housing schemes

Every decision on sites of nine units or fewer, coded from the council's own register and refreshed each quarter. What gets built, what gets approved, and what trips applications up.

Last updated April 2026 160 applications tracked Window: Jan 2023 to Mar 2026 4 areas, 2 scheme types
Applications logged
160
Full, householder and minor resi since Jan 2023
Decided so far
101
35 approved, 66 refused, 4 withdrawn
Approval rate
35%
Under half of decided applications
Typical time to decide
8 weeks
Median determination time across all small sites

Barking and Dagenham, area by area

Colour shows how often applications get approved. Numbers show how many were decided. Hover or tap an area for detail.

Barking 9 Dagenham 39 Chadwell Heath 22 Becontree 24 Approval rate 11% 46%
Spotlight

Barking

Decisions
9
Approved
1
Refused
8
Approval rate
11%
Hover or tap any tile to see that area’s detail.
Tile positions are schematic, not to geographic scale. Each hex represents one of Barking and Dagenham’s sub-areas as defined in the council’s own planning framework.

Becontree approves 46% of applications. Barking, closer to 11%. Same borough, same policy, 35 percentage points of difference.

Which kinds of schemes get approved?

Bar length shows how many of each type were decided. The split shows the share approved versus refused. Conversion is by far the most common route in Barking and Dagenham, but it's demolish & rebuild that sees the highest approval rate.

Approved Refused Bar length = sample size (max n=44)
Conversion
23%n=44
Demolish & rebuild
40%n=20
Scheme types with fewer than 10 decisions in the window are not shown here.
Conversion, dividing one home into flats
Demolish & rebuild, existing building replaced with new homes

Why applications fail in Barking and Dagenham

Of every hundred reasons cited in refused decisions in Barking and Dagenham, design quality accounts for the biggest slice at 36%.

Design quality, bulk, massing, appearance 36
Other, mixed reasons 17
Amenity, overlooking, daylight, noise 15
Open space, loss of garden or green space 9
Transport, parking, safety, access 8
Flood risk 7
Policy, affordable housing, density targets 4
Delegated process 2
Heritage, conservation areas, listed setting 1
Infrastructure, access, parking, drainage 1
Read as: “Of every 100 reasons cited in a refusal, 36 relate to design quality.” A single refusal often names two or more reasons. Based on 243 reasons extracted from refused decision notices.

In Barking and Dagenham, what gets a scheme refused is usually how it looks, not how many homes it adds.

Thinking about a specific site?

The dashboard gives you the borough picture. If you have a particular address in mind, we can tell you what the comparable decisions say about your odds, density and capacity.

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Data sources & method

Applications. Sourced from the Greater London Authority (GLA) Planning Datahub and Barking and Dagenham Council’s online planning register. Covers full planning, householder, and minor residential applications of nine units or fewer decided in the window shown above.

Decisions and timing. Outcomes and determination times are taken from the council’s published decision notices.

Refusal reasons. Extracted from refused decision notices that were publicly available. Not every refusal has a readable notice, so totals count all refusals but the reason breakdown covers only those we could read.

Scheme classification. Site types (conversion, demolish & rebuild, extension, and so on) are coded from application descriptions and drawings. Areas are mapped from postcodes and ward names using the council’s own sub-area definitions.

Update frequency. Refreshed quarterly. Next refresh: July 2026.

Nothing here is planning advice. Outcomes are historical and do not predict individual cases. Approval rates vary with site specifics, policy context, and case officer. For a read on a particular site, request a Site Assessment. See our Terms of Use for full details on how this data is compiled and the limits of its use.