How Lewisham 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.
Lewisham, area by area
Colour shows how often applications get approved. Numbers show how many were decided. Hover or tap an area for detail.
Deptford & New Cross
Lewisham Central approves 73% of applications. Hither Green, closer to 33%. Same borough, same policy, 40 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 Lewisham, but it's backland that sees the highest approval rate.
Why applications fail in Lewisham
Of every hundred reasons cited in refused decisions in Lewisham, design quality accounts for the biggest slice at 28%.
In Lewisham, what gets a scheme refused is usually how it looks, not how many homes it adds.
Is Lewisham getting busier?
Decisions per quarter have held roughly steady since 2023, and approval rates have drifted upward over the same window.
Interrogate the data yourself
Every figure on this page comes from Lewisham's own planning decisions. We publish the underlying data so you can check it, replicate our findings, or use it in your own tools. Verify against the council's planning portal before relying on any record, and tell us if you spot a problem.
Decided small-site applications, 1 to 9 units. Planning-decision layer only: Energy Performance Certificate, Land Registry and case-officer fields are held back. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Methodology.
Thinking about a specific site?
The dashboard gives you the borough picture. If you’re weighing a particular site, the Red Line Review is an independent second opinion before you commit six figures — one sentence on what I’d do if it were my money, and why.
Applications. Sourced from the Greater London Authority (GLA) Planning Datahub and Lewisham 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 Red Line Review. See our Terms of Use for full details on how this data is compiled and the limits of its use.