What actually gets approved in London’s small-site planning
An independent read of how London decides small-site planning applications: what gets approved, what gets refused, and why. 15,533 applications across 33 London boroughs, 12,458 decided, every refusal reason classified and evidence-graded. The same reading whoever is asking, developer or seller, agent or authority.
GLA Small Sites Release Fund. Submissions close 10 July.
Comparable-evidence data for site investigations, due diligence, and feasibility. £250,000 available per applicant. The fund pays for evidence, not application drafting.
The problem
Small-site planning is hard to read in advance. Preparing an application (the drawings, the consultants, the submission itself) typically costs £15,000 to £25,000, and the eight-week target is rarely the reality: in Hammersmith & Fulham the median approval runs to about fifteen weeks. Much of the outcome turns on a question the borough has already settled.
43.6% of London small-site applications are refused. In the toughest boroughs, Havering, Croydon and Waltham Forest, it’s closer to six or seven in ten. Most of that outcome is, in principle, knowable in advance.
Of the schemes that do get through, around 1 in 4 lose units during determination, typically a unit or two.
Published policy tells you what a borough wants.
The data tells you what it approves.
Three patterns in the data
How we work
Perfect Scale is a planning-intelligence practice, not a product on a shelf. We work alongside the people who make London’s small sites happen: developers and land partners, architects, councils and registered providers, lenders, advisers, researchers and pro-housing campaigns. We bring the decision record to bear on a specific question, and leave the judgement with them.
We’re still discovering the sharpest shape for this. The best way to find it is a conversation.
How it’s made
Every application coded
We take three years of small-site decisions in a borough and code each one by site type, area, PTAL, density, conservation status, and outcome.
Every document read
We read the officer reports and decision notices for refusal reasons, conditions, case officers, and design commentary. More than 10,000 documents so far.
Every finding graded
Every finding sits in one of four evidence tiers, set by sample size and statistical significance. We flag small samples openly and qualify every claim.
About
I built the tool I wished existed.
I’ve sat on every side of this table. Designing schemes as an architect. Assessing them at a London council. Acquiring sites and managing planning as a developer. Fourteen years of watching the gap between what policy says and what officers actually approve.
The planning system publishes the data. Nobody was synthesising it. So I built Perfect Scale: every application coded, every document read, every finding graded.
Better data → better schemes → more homes.
Abre Etteh, ARB Registered Architect
The evidence is here. Let’s put it to work.
15,533 applications across 33 London boroughs, 12,458 decided. Every finding evidence-graded. The same reading, whoever is asking.