New national planning decision rules start this month
Published: Friday, October 23, 2026
From 31 October, more planning decisions will now be decided by council officers rather than the Planning Committee, under new rules imposed by central government.
Share this
The national statutory changes mean that some applications will automatically be decided outside of Planning Committee using agreed guidance from both national planning policies and Wandsworth's own local policies.
Councillors sitting on Wandsworth Council's Planning Committee will now be asked to only focus on applications that meet the criteria set out in the national regulations - primarily larger applications and those that would particularly benefit from the input and scrutiny of elected councillors.
Applications decided by council officials after 31 October will be proposals that are smaller and more routine, including householder applications, residential schemes of up to nine dwellings on sites below 0.5 hectares, and minor commercial development.
Under the new rules, residents, community groups and businesses can still comment on applications in the usual way, and all relevant planning issues raised will continue to be carefully considered before a decision is made. As part of the democratic process, you can also still contact your local councillor about local issues or concerns.
The number of objections will no longer automatically trigger a committee referral, even where there is extensive local opposition to an application. Ward councillors will also no longer be able to require an application to be called in.
Cllr Ravi Govindia, Planning Committee Chair, said: "This is a major change imposed nationally upon us by government - not one this Council would ever volunteer to make. It is not clear what problem it is intending to fix - in Wandsworth our committee does not hold up decisions or make them inconsistently. Our approval rate is consistently high and demonstrates our openness to quality development in the borough. We will continue working closely with our planning officers to ensure residents' views are heard during the decision-making process."
The last Planning Committee under existing rules was held on Thursday 22 October. The new 'delegation' rules which forced a change to the Council's Constitution at a Full Council meeting on 21 October 2026, will come into effect for decisions made from 1 November.