Two schemes approved on 20 August paid nothing to affordable housing. Wandsworth's £50,000-per-home charge only bites on applications filed from 28 July.

Wandsworth adopted a tougher affordable housing policy on 4 March, and then did not apply the part that charges small housing schemes for almost five months.

That is set out in the council’s own officer reports for the two applications approved by the Planning Applications Committee on 20 August. Both say the same thing, in almost identical wording.

“During this transitional period, the affordable housing contribution requirements of Policy LP23 are not being applied to planning applications. The Council has confirmed that Policy LP23 will come into effect for applications received from the 28th of July.”

Neither scheme paid anything.

What the policy was meant to do

Policy LP23 was rewritten in the Wandsworth Local Plan Partial Review, adopted by Full Council on 4 March 2026. It sets a strategic target of 50 per cent of habitable rooms as affordable housing.

For the first time it also charged small sites. The officer’s report for 32 Nightingale Lane spells out the rate:

  • Schemes of 1 to 9 dwellings gross must make a financial contribution.
  • The rate is £50,000 per unit on a gross basis, subject to indexation.
  • An applicant claiming it is unviable must submit a viability assessment for independent review.

We set out what the Partial Review changed in our guide to planning rules in Wandsworth.

The gap

The policy applies by the date an application is received, not the date it is decided. So anything submitted between adoption on 4 March and 27 July escapes the charge, however late in the year the committee gets to it.

Timeline showing Wandsworth's LP23 affordable housing policy adopted on 4 March 2026, a transitional period in which no contribution was charged, and the policy taking effect for applications received from 28 July 2026

The council’s reason, as recorded by officers, is administrative: the policy “is subject to a transitional period in respect to the implementation of the policy whilst the necessary administrative arrangements are put in place”.

For scale, the committee’s own decisions report records 208 planning decisions in May, 233 in June and 210 in July. Most of those are not housing schemes and would never have owed a contribution. The point is the size of the window, not that every application in it dodged a bill.

The two schemes

5 Beechcroft Road, SW17 7BU (Tooting Bec ward). Application 2026/1002 was submitted on 12 March 2026, eight days after the policy was adopted. Permission was granted unanimously to demolish a vacant single-storey building and put up a part two-storey, part three-storey block. It contains:

  • 1 studio
  • 2 one-bedroom flats
  • 4 two-bedroom flats
  • 1 three-bedroom flat
  • a community use (Class F2) on part of the ground floor

The site was last used as a day centre for the elderly. It backs onto the rear gardens of 68, 70 and 72 Upper Tooting Road, which are Grade II listed, and sits opposite two-storey terraced houses. St Peter’s Church and its hall are next door to the north.

Officers put the Community Infrastructure Levy at £39,148.01 Mayoral CIL and £181,037.60 borough CIL, both estimates until the details are approved. On the £50,000-per-unit rate quoted in the other report that evening, eight units would have carried a £400,000 affordable housing contribution. That is our arithmetic: the Beechcroft Road report gives no figure, because no contribution was sought.

32 Nightingale Lane, SW12 8TD (Balham ward). Application 2026/1971, submitted on 28 May 2026, converts a nine-bedroom house in multiple occupation back into a single family home. The report states the development “would create one new residential unit and under Policy LP23 would be liable to pay an affordable housing contribution”, then applies the same transitional reasoning and charges nothing. It was also approved unanimously, subject to a section 106 agreement.

What the neighbours said

Thirty-four letters went out on the Beechcroft Road scheme and three responses came back. The report’s table logs one objection, one supporting representation from the applicant’s agent, and one comment. Its narrative section then says “two objections were received”, so the two parts of the same report do not agree on the count.

The points raised were:

  • loss of daylight and sunlight
  • overlooking and loss of privacy
  • traffic and parking pressure on Beechcroft Road
  • construction parking, access, timing and duration
  • questions about the proposed community use
  • concern about the effect on neighbouring property values

The report does not assess the property values point. The council’s tree, ecology, flood, waste, noise and contamination officers all raised no objection, several of them subject to conditions.

The site has been fought over before. A 2017 application to demolish the community building for six flats was refused on three grounds, including a failure to show there was no demand for community use. A revised scheme for seven flats with a community unit was approved in December 2023.

What it means for you

  • If you are a Wandsworth resident hoping the new 50 per cent policy would start funding affordable homes from March, it did not. On the council’s own account, the small-sites charge began with applications received from 28 July.
  • If you are objecting to a small scheme near you, check the date it was received. That date, not the decision date, determines whether a contribution is due.
  • Applications and decisions are searchable on the council’s Planning Explorer, and the committee’s papers are published on its democracy site.
  • The next Planning Applications Committee meets on 17 September at 7.30pm in Room 123 at the Town Hall, Wandsworth High Street.

Sources