London Borough of Ealing

How Ealing 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 989 applications tracked Window: Jan 2023 to Mar 2026 7 areas, 8 scheme types
Applications logged
989
Full, householder and minor resi since Jan 2023
Decided so far
558
355 approved, 203 refused, 41 withdrawn
Approval rate
64%
Just over half of decided applications
Typical time to decide
9 weeks
Median determination time across all small sites

Ealing, area by area

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

Acton 113 Ealing 150 Greenford 58 Hanwell 41 Northolt 14 Perivale 34 Southall 148 Approval rate 43% 71%
Spotlight

Acton

Decisions
113
Approved
71
Refused
42
Approval rate
63%
Hover or tap any tile to see that area’s detail.
Tile positions are schematic, not to geographic scale. Each hex represents one of Ealing’s sub-areas as defined in the council’s own planning framework.

Hanwell approves 71% of applications. Northolt, closer to 43%. Same borough, same policy, 28 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 Ealing, but it's infill that sees the highest approval rate.

Approved Refused Bar length = sample size (max n=189)
Conversion
57%n=189
Demolish & rebuild
75%n=123
Mid-terrace
64%n=107
Mixed use
64%n=45
End-of-terrace
50%n=40
Infill
83%n=18
Extension
64%n=14
Backland
40%n=10
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
Mid-terrace, insertion into the middle of a terrace
Mixed use, ground-floor commercial with homes above
End-of-terrace, new infill at the end of a terraced row
Infill, new build on small pockets of land
Extension, rear, side or upward additions creating a new unit
Backland, new build on rear gardens or courtyard land

Why applications fail in Ealing

Of every hundred reasons cited in refused decisions in Ealing, design quality accounts for the biggest slice at 42%.

Design quality, bulk, massing, appearance 42
Amenity, overlooking, daylight, noise 17
Open space, loss of garden or green space 14
Other, mixed reasons 7
Transport, parking, safety, access 7
Flood risk 4
Policy, affordable housing, density targets 3
Unit sizes, below space standards 2
Delegated process 1
Permitted development 1
Read as: “Of every 100 reasons cited in a refusal, 42 relate to design quality.” A single refusal often names two or more reasons. Based on 336 reasons extracted from refused decision notices.

In Ealing, 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 Ealing 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.