London Borough of Newham

How Newham 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 399 applications tracked Window: Jan 2023 to Mar 2026 8 areas, 7 scheme types

Applications logged

399

Full, householder and minor resi since Jan 2023

Decided so far

311

120 approved, 191 refused, 39 withdrawn

Approval rate

39%

Under half of decided applications

Typical time to decide

8 weeks

Median determination time across all small sites

Newham, area by area

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

Spotlight

Stratford

Decisions

Approved

Refused

Approval rate

44%

Hover or tap any tile to see that area’s detail.

Tile positions are schematic, not to geographic scale. Each hex represents one of Newham’s sub-areas as defined in the council’s own planning framework.

Plaistow approves 45% of applications. West Ham, closer to 30%. Same borough, same policy, 15 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 Newham, but it's demolish & rebuild that sees the highest approval rate.

Approved Refused Bar length = sample size (max n=140)

Conversion

31%n=140

Extension

48%n=46

Demolish & rebuild

51%n=45

Mid-terrace

48%n=23

End-of-terrace

35%n=17

Backland

44%n=16

Mixed use

36%n=11

Scheme types with fewer than 10 decisions in the window are not shown here.

Conversion, dividing one home into flats

Extension, rear, side or upward additions creating a new unit

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

Backland, new build on rear gardens or courtyard land

Mixed use, ground-floor commercial with homes above

Why applications fail in Newham

Of every hundred reasons cited in refused decisions in Newham, design quality accounts for the biggest slice at 29%.

Design 29%

Policy 18%

Open 16%

Amenity 16%

Transport 8%

Design quality, bulk, massing, appearance 29

Policy, affordable housing, density targets 18

Open space, loss of garden or green space 16

Amenity, overlooking, daylight, noise 16

Transport, parking, safety, access 8

Unit sizes, below space standards 4

Flood risk 3

Other, mixed reasons 2

Infrastructure, access, parking, drainage 2

Permitted development 1

Read as: “Of every 100 reasons cited in a refusal, 29 relate to design quality.” A single refusal often names two or more reasons. Based on 329 reasons extracted from refused decision notices.

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

Is Newham getting busier?

Decisions per quarter have held roughly steady since 2023, and approval rates have stayed in the same band over the same window.

Decisions per quarter

Approval rate (%)

Hover any bar or dot for exact quarterly values. The most recent quarter may be partial while pending decisions work through.

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 Newham 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.