Wandsworth Borough Council leads the way in granting residential planning permissions across Greater London, as Barking & Dagenham, Lewisham and Lambeth lag behind
Using statistics from the ministry of housing, communities & local government, Property Solvers has extracted the total number of Greater London residential planning decisions between April and June.
The London Borough of Wandsworth saw the highest volume of awarded major and minor planning grants. Of the 228 residential planning decisions, 190 (83%) received the go-ahead.
Kensington & Chelsea saw 128 of the 142 planning decisions granted (90%). Camden, in North London, also had 123 out of 148 decisions awarded (83%).
The data demonstrated that the outer areas of London saw fewer successful residential planning applications. Barking and Dagenham, for example, saw just 7 out of 25 (28%) planning grants awarded.
Planning committees at Lewisham, Lambeth, Greenwich, Redbridge, Bromley, Richmond, Newham, Tower Hamlets, Kingston, Enfield and Bexley Borough councils granted under 30 planning applications (individually).
Residential planning permission granted across the London Boroughs
| London Boroughs – Total major and minor residential decisions granted | |
| Wandsworth | 190 |
| Kensington and Chelsea | 128 |
| Camden | 123 |
| Croydon | 104 |
| Southwark | 94 |
| Islington | 88 |
| Ealing | 85 |
| Barnet | 82 |
| Waltham Forest | 67 |
| Hackney | 56 |
| Brent | 54 |
| Hillingdon | 46 |
| Westminster | 39 |
| Sutton | 38 |
| Havering | 33 |
| Hammersmith and Fulham | 32 |
| Harrow | 32 |
| Haringey | 31 |
| Hounslow | 31 |
| Merton | 31 |
| Bexley | 28 |
| Enfield | 27 |
| Kingston-upon-Thames | 27 |
| Tower Hamlets | 26 |
| Newham | 23 |
| Richmond-upon-Thames | 23 |
| Bromley | 21 |
| Redbridge | 21 |
| Greenwich | 20 |
| Lambeth | 18 |
| Lewisham | 16 |
| Barking and Dagenham | 7 |
| City of London | 3 |
Commenting on the data, co-founder of Property Solvers, Ruban Selvanayagam, said: “Although it’s encouraging to see reasonable levels of successful planning decisions in Central London, it’s perplexing as to why many of the outer areas have seen such a low level of permissions.”
“For instance, in Barking and Dagenham, with a population of over 210,000, such a low volume is concerning. I suspect that issues like NIMBYism and a reluctance to build too densely amongst these council decision-makers are coming into play.”
“It’s also worth adding that successful planning decisions do not necessarily mean that projects are actually being carried out…”
“With developers worried about the impacts of Brexit, a weakening pound and rising construction costs, it’s a financially risky time to be building new homes. Many projects are successfully getting planning but not being executed – mainly out of fear of financial disaster.”
