Planning Approval Rate in Lewisham
Lewisham is close to the England average for planning permission: it approves 84.6% of applications and decides 94.9% of them within the statutory time limit, ranking #229 of 310 English authorities. This page sets out how hard it is to get planning permission in Lewisham, how quickly the council decides, and how it compares with its neighbours — from official government figures plus the live planning activity PlanWatch tracks across Lewisham.
Source: official MHCLG planning statistics (PS2), 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025. Based on 1,379 decisions (1,167 granted, 212 refused).
How Lewisham compares
| Lewisham | 84.6% |
| London average | 82.5% |
| England average | 87% |
Lewisham is 2.4 points stricter than the England average.
How hard is it to get planning permission in Lewisham?
Lewisham is in the stricter third of English authorities, granting 84.6% of the applications it decides (rank 229th of 310). That puts it close to the England average — 84.6% approved against an England average of 87%. Within London it is the 15th most approving of 34 local planning authorities, where the regional average is 82.5%. Refusals are fairly frequent here: 212 of its 1,379 decisions were refusals (15.4%). On the split by scale it is somewhat more lenient on major schemes than on small ones: 94.4% of major developments approved versus 86.4% of householder and other small-scale work, from 18 major decisions.
On timing it is a little faster than average, deciding 94.9% of applications within the statutory period against 90.6% nationally. Its figures rest on one of the heavier caseloads of 1,379 decisions over 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025, where the typical English authority decides around 783. Among its London neighbours it sits between Ealing (85.2%, more approving) and Hillingdon (83.8%, stricter). For context in London, Hammersmith and Fulham approves the most (97.2%) and Barking and Dagenham the least (66.2%).
Compare Lewisham with nearby councils
Approval rates for other authorities in London. See the full London league table.
Approval rate by development scale in Lewisham
Live planning activity in Lewisham
From the latest planning data PlanWatch holds (to 3 September 2026). These are the records we've collected — the freshness the annual government table lacks.
What people apply for in Lewisham
Where planning activity concentrates in Lewisham
Recent applications in Lewisham
Track live decisions near a postcode on the PlanWatch Lewisham page.
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Planning permission in Lewisham: common questions
Is it hard to get planning permission in Lewisham?
On the latest official figures Lewisham is close to the England average and in the stricter third of English authorities, approving 84.6% of the 1,379 applications it decided over 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025 against 87% for England.
What percentage of planning applications does Lewisham approve or refuse?
Refusals are fairly frequent here: 84.6% approved and 15.4% refused — 1,167 granted and 212 refused of 1,379 decisions, with major schemes approved at 94.4% and householder and other work at 86.4%.
How quickly does Lewisham decide planning applications?
On timing Lewisham is a little faster than average: 94.9% of applications were decided within the statutory period — eight weeks for most, thirteen for major schemes — against 90.6% nationally.
Is Lewisham stricter than nearby councils?
Lewisham's 84.6% approval rate makes it the 15th most approving of 34 authorities in London, against a 82.5% regional average. Neighbouring Ealing approves 85.2% and Hillingdon 83.8%.
Can I use Lewisham's approval rate to predict whether my application will be approved?
No — the approval rate is a historic average across every application Lewisham decided, not a prediction for any individual application; your outcome depends on the site, the proposal, local planning policy and any objections.
Methodology & limits
Approval, refusal and in-time rates come from the government's official PS2 planning application statistics (Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government), covering 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025. This dataset is England-only and published annually, so it lags live activity. Live figures are the applications PlanWatch has collected for Lewisham and are not a complete council register. Refusal reasons and delegated-vs-committee splits are not published in this data.
This is a historic average, not a prediction. It cannot tell you whether your application will be approved — that depends on your site, proposal, local policy and any objections.
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