London Borough of Southwark

How Southwark 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 299 applications tracked Window: Jan 2023 to Mar 2026 9 areas, 6 scheme types

Applications logged

299

Full, householder and minor resi since Jan 2023

Decided so far

211

153 approved, 58 refused, 23 withdrawn

Approval rate

73%

Roughly two in three decided applications

Typical time to decide

9 weeks

Median determination time across all small sites

Southwark, area by area

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

Spotlight

Bermondsey

Decisions

Approved

Refused

Approval rate

85%

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

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

Bermondsey approves 85% of applications. Old Kent Road, closer to 50%. 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 Southwark, but it's demolish & rebuild that sees the highest approval rate.

Approved Refused Bar length = sample size (max n=63)

Conversion

63%n=63

Demolish & rebuild

88%n=51

Extension

62%n=24

Backland

80%n=15

End-of-terrace

86%n=14

Mid-terrace

55%n=11

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

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 Southwark

Of every hundred reasons cited in refused decisions in Southwark, design quality accounts for the biggest slice at 27%.

Design 27%

Policy 21%

Other 14%

Heritage 10%

Amenity 9%

Design quality, bulk, massing, appearance 27

Policy, affordable housing, density targets 21

Other, mixed reasons 14

Heritage, conservation areas, listed setting 10

Amenity, overlooking, daylight, noise 9

Infrastructure, access, parking, drainage 5

Permitted development 5

Unit sizes, below space standards 4

Transport, parking, safety, access 3

Open space, loss of garden or green space 2

Read as: “Of every 100 reasons cited in a refusal, 27 relate to design quality.” A single refusal often names two or more reasons. Based on 111 reasons extracted from refused decision notices.

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

Is Southwark getting busier?

Decisions per quarter have grown since 2023, and approval rates have drifted upward 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.

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Data sources & method

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