Wandsworth adopted tougher housing rules on 4 March 2026: 50% affordable, 70% of that social rent, and £50,000 per home from small sites. What it changes.
Wandsworth’s planning rules changed on 4 March 2026, and the change is a large one. The Council adopted the Wandsworth Local Plan Partial Review, six rewritten policies that raise what developers have to contribute in affordable housing and, for the first time, charge small schemes towards it. Every planning application decided in the borough from that date is judged against the new wording.
This page sets out what the borough’s plan now says, how many homes it commits Wandsworth to, what the March changes actually do, and where to look up a scheme near you.
The plan in force
Wandsworth has two documents doing the job of one. The Wandsworth Local Plan (2023-2038) was adopted in July 2023 and remains in force. The Local Plan Partial Review was adopted on 4 March 2026 and replaces six of its policies outright, leaving everything else standing. (Wandsworth Council, adoption statement)
The six policies it supersedes are LP23 Affordable Housing, LP24 Housing Mix, LP28 Purpose-Built Student Accommodation, LP29 Housing with Shared Facilities, LP30 Build to Rent, and LP31 Specialist Housing for Vulnerable or Older People. They are all housing policies. Nothing about design, heritage, employment land or open space moved. (Wandsworth Council, The Adopted Local Plan)
The housing numbers
The 2023 plan commits the borough to a minimum of 20,311 new homes between 2023 and 2038, and a minimum of 1,950 new homes a year up to 2028/29. Of that annual figure, at least 414 homes a year are expected from small sites, meaning intensification of existing plots rather than large schemes. (Wandsworth Council, The Local Plan explained)
Where that capacity sits is set by Local Plan Policy SDS1, which spreads it across nine Area Strategies, allocated sites outside those boundaries, and small sites right across the borough. Nine Elms and Battersea have carried much of the recent delivery, which is why the construction traffic around Nine Elms Lane has been a fixture of the borough’s roads for years.
Against that supply target sits a separate demand figure, and the gap between them is the argument the Partial Review was built on. A new Housing Needs Assessment puts the borough’s requirement at up to 23,600 additional affordable homes by 2038, two thirds of them for social rent, with around 11,000 households already on the Council’s waiting lists. (Wandsworth Council, Affordable housing in Wandsworth boosted by changes to local planning rules)
What the March 2026 changes do
The Council’s strategic target is for 50% of new homes in the borough to be affordable. The Partial Review is the machinery for getting closer to it. Three changes matter most:
| Requirement | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Share of affordable homes that must be social rent | 50% | At least 70% |
| Schemes of fewer than 10 homes | No affordable housing contribution | £50,000 per dwelling |
| Build to Rent, student and co-living schemes | Weaker requirements | Stronger affordable contribution |
The social rent shift is the one with the sharpest effect on who ends up living in new buildings. Affordable housing is a broad category that stretches from social rent, the cheapest, up to shared ownership and discounted market rent, which a household on the waiting list often cannot reach. Requiring at least 70% of the affordable element to be social rent pushes the mix towards the tenure the Council’s own evidence says is most needed.
The £50,000 per dwelling charge on schemes of fewer than ten homes is new ground. Small sites are supposed to deliver 414 homes a year here, and until March they contributed nothing towards affordable housing. Now a nine-flat conversion carries a bill approaching half a million pounds.
Aydin Dikerdem, Cabinet Member for Housing, said: “We’re an ambitious progressive council and we want to ensure private sites in Wandsworth deliver the social housing local people need. Thanks to this decision, when a scheme comes through our planning process we will fight for as much affordable housing as we can get which will help those residents on our housing list.” (Wandsworth Council)
How the plan got through examination
The Partial Review took nearly two years to land, and the record is public at every step. The Council consulted on the publication version between 13 January and 24 February 2025, then submitted it to the Secretary of State on 30 April 2025. Inspector G. Wyatt BA (Hons) MRTPI was appointed on 22 May 2025, and the Examination in Public hearings ran through November 2025. (Wandsworth Council, Local Plan Partial Review: Examination)
The Inspector’s proposed Main Modifications went out for a seven week consultation from 26 November 2025 to 14 January 2026, and the final report reached the Council on 20 February 2026. It concluded the plan was capable of adoption subject to those modifications, all of which the adopted version incorporates. Full Council adopted it on 4 March 2026. (Wandsworth Council, adoption statement)
A note if you go looking yourself: the Council’s examination page still reads as though the review is in progress. The statutory adoption statement, linked above, is the document that settles it.
What it means for you
If you are objecting to a scheme near you, the policies you can cite have changed. An application for eight flats that offers nothing towards affordable housing is now out of step with adopted policy in a way it was not in February.
If you are a small developer or a homeowner splitting a property, the £50,000 per dwelling charge is the change to price in before you buy or submit.
If you are on the housing waiting list, the effect is real but slow. Policy governs what gets permission, and permissions take years to become buildings. The 23,600 figure is the size of the need, not a promise of delivery.
Looking up an application
Wandsworth is not on the Idox Public Access system that most London boroughs use. Its register is Northgate Planning Explorer, reachable from the Council’s planning search page, where you can search by address, application number or date and read the officer’s report on any decided case.
For a plain list of what has just come in, the Council publishes a weekly applications PDF and a weekly decisions PDF, both broken down by electoral ward with the application number, address, proposal and case officer for each entry. They sit on the weekly advertised planning applications page. The file links change every week, so bookmark that index page rather than an individual PDF.
Comments on a live application have to arrive inside the consultation period stated on the case, which is usually 21 days from the notice going up.
Frequently asked questions
When did Wandsworth’s new planning rules come into force?
The Wandsworth Local Plan Partial Review was adopted by the Council on 4 March 2026 and applies to applications decided from that date. The wider Wandsworth Local Plan (2023-2038), adopted in July 2023, remains in force for everything the review did not change.
How many new homes does Wandsworth have to build?
The Local Plan sets a minimum of 20,311 new homes between 2023 and 2038, and a minimum of 1,950 a year up to 2028/29, of which at least 414 a year are expected to come from small sites.
How much affordable housing does a developer have to provide in Wandsworth?
The Council’s strategic target is 50% of new homes affordable, and since March 2026 at least 70% of the affordable element must be social rent. Schemes of fewer than ten homes, which previously contributed nothing, now pay £50,000 per dwelling.
Where do I search Wandsworth planning applications?
Through Northgate Planning Explorer, linked from the Council’s planning search page. The Council also publishes weekly applications and decisions PDFs listed by ward.
Is Wandsworth’s Local Plan still being examined?
No. The examination ended when the Inspector’s report was issued on 20 February 2026, and the plan was adopted on 4 March 2026. Some pages on the Council’s own website have not been updated to reflect that.
Sources
- Wandsworth Local Plan Partial Review adoption statement (Wandsworth Council) for the adoption date, the six superseded policies and the examination timeline.
- The Adopted Local Plan (Wandsworth Council) for how the two documents fit together.
- The Local Plan explained (Wandsworth Council) for the 20,311, 1,950 and 414 housing figures.
- Affordable housing in Wandsworth boosted by changes to local planning rules (Wandsworth Council, 2 March 2026) for the 70% social rent requirement, the £50,000 small sites charge, the 23,600 need figure and the waiting list.
- Local Plan Partial Review: Examination (Wandsworth Council) for the Inspector, hearing dates and consultation windows.
- Weekly advertised planning applications (Wandsworth Council) for the weekly ward-by-ward lists.
Planning policy changes. Confirm the current position against the Council’s own pages before relying on anything here for an application or an objection.
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