London Borough of Kingston upon Thames

How Kingston upon Thames 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 322 applications tracked Window: Jan 2023 to Mar 2026 4 areas, 6 scheme types
Applications logged
322
Full, householder and minor resi since Jan 2023
Decided so far
283
129 approved, 154 refused, 15 withdrawn
Approval rate
46%
Under half of decided applications
Typical time to decide
8 weeks
Median determination time across all small sites

Kingston upon Thames, area by area

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

Kingston & North Kingston 82 New & Old Malden 58 Surbiton 114 South of the Borough 27 Approval rate 39% 52%
Spotlight

Kingston & North Kingston

Decisions
82
Approved
43
Refused
39
Approval rate
52%
Hover or tap any tile to see that area’s detail.
Tile positions are schematic, not to geographic scale. Each hex represents one of Kingston upon Thames’s sub-areas as defined in the council’s own planning framework.

Across Kingston upon Thames, approval rates move in a 13-point band from Surbiton (39%) up to Kingston & North Kingston (52%).

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 Kingston upon Thames, but it's end-of-terrace that sees the highest approval rate.

Approved Refused Bar length = sample size (max n=111)
Conversion
43%n=111
Demolish & rebuild
48%n=80
Mid-terrace
39%n=28
End-of-terrace
56%n=16
Extension
36%n=14
Mixed use
43%n=14
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
End-of-terrace, new infill at the end of a terraced row
Extension, rear, side or upward additions creating a new unit
Mixed use, ground-floor commercial with homes above

Why applications fail in Kingston upon Thames

Of every hundred reasons cited in refused decisions in Kingston upon Thames, design quality accounts for the biggest slice at 80%.

Design quality, bulk, massing, appearance 80
Transport, parking, safety, access 4
Unit sizes, below space standards 3
Open space, loss of garden or green space 2
Amenity, overlooking, daylight, noise 2
Delegated process 2
Policy, affordable housing, density targets 2
Other, mixed reasons 2
Infrastructure, access, parking, drainage 1
Flood risk 1
Read as: “Of every 100 reasons cited in a refusal, 80 relate to design quality.” A single refusal often names two or more reasons. Based on 345 reasons extracted from refused decision notices.

In Kingston upon Thames, 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 Kingston upon Thames 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.