London Borough of Bromley

How Bromley 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 417 applications tracked Window: Jan 2023 to Mar 2026 8 areas, 6 scheme types
Applications logged
417
Full, householder and minor resi since Jan 2023
Decided so far
370
176 approved, 194 refused, 7 withdrawn
Approval rate
48%
Under half of decided applications
Typical time to decide
9 weeks
Median determination time across all small sites

Bromley, area by area

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

Beckenham 53 Bromley Central 96 Penge & Anerley 35 Chislehurst 41 Orpington 59 Farnborough & Crofton 50 Hayes & West Wickham 26 Biggin Hill & Rural 10 Approval rate 20% 56%
Spotlight

Beckenham

Decisions
53
Approved
28
Refused
25
Approval rate
53%
Hover or tap any tile to see that area’s detail.
Tile positions are schematic, not to geographic scale. Each hex represents one of Bromley’s sub-areas as defined in the council’s own planning framework.

Chislehurst approves 56% of applications. Biggin Hill & Rural, closer to 20%. Same borough, same policy, 36 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. Demolish & rebuild is by far the most common route in Bromley, but it's extension that sees the highest approval rate.

Approved Refused Bar length = sample size (max n=153)
Demolish & rebuild
43%n=153
Conversion
52%n=109
Extension
62%n=29
Backland
26%n=23
End-of-terrace
52%n=21
Mid-terrace
46%n=13
Scheme types with fewer than 10 decisions in the window are not shown here.
Demolish & rebuild, existing building replaced with new homes
Conversion, dividing one home into flats
Extension, rear, side or upward additions creating a new unit
Backland, new build on rear gardens or courtyard land
End-of-terrace, new infill at the end of a terraced row
Mid-terrace, insertion into the middle of a terrace

Why applications fail in Bromley

Of every hundred reasons cited in refused decisions in Bromley, design quality accounts for the biggest slice at 34%.

Design quality, bulk, massing, appearance 34
Other, mixed reasons 25
Amenity, overlooking, daylight, noise 14
Flood risk 7
Infrastructure, access, parking, drainage 6
Policy, affordable housing, density targets 4
Open space, loss of garden or green space 3
Transport, parking, safety, access 3
Heritage, conservation areas, listed setting 2
Delegated process 2
Read as: “Of every 100 reasons cited in a refusal, 34 relate to design quality.” A single refusal often names two or more reasons. Based on 1133 reasons extracted from refused decision notices.

In Bromley, 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.

Request a Site Assessment → See other boroughs
Data sources & method

Applications. Sourced from the Greater London Authority (GLA) Planning Datahub and Bromley 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.