Wandsworth Council has set out how a new set of national planning rules will change the way decisions are made in the borough from 1 November — with more small and routine applications decided by council officers instead of the Planning Committee.
The changes, which come into force for decisions made from the start of November, have been imposed by central government under the National Scheme of Delegation, the statutory framework behind the government’s planning committee reforms in the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025. The government’s own consultation response says the intention was for the final regulations to come into force on 31 October 2026.
What is changing
Under the new delegation rules, applications that are smaller and more routine will be determined by council officers under agreed guidance from both national planning policies and Wandsworth’s own local policies, rather than going before elected councillors on the Planning Committee.
The categories the council has identified include householder applications — such as extensions and alterations to existing homes — minor commercial development, and residential schemes of up to nine homes on sites below 0.5 hectares.
The categories are defined by the type and scale of a proposal, rather than by whether it has attracted objections. That means a smaller proposal can follow the officer route even where residents have submitted comments on it.
Objections will no longer guarantee a committee hearing
One of the most significant practical changes concerns how objections affect the route an application takes. The number of objections received will no longer automatically trigger a referral to the Planning Committee — even where a proposal has attracted substantial local opposition.
Ward councillors will also lose the power to require an application to be called in to committee under the former local arrangements. Whether a case can go to committee will instead depend on the national criteria that apply to it.
The council stresses that the change concerns who makes the decision, not whether applications are judged against planning policy. Officers will apply national planning guidance alongside Wandsworth’s own local policies when deciding the applications covered by the rules.
Residents can still comment
Residents, community groups and businesses will still be able to comment on planning applications during the relevant consultation period. Wandsworth says all relevant planning considerations raised through consultation will continue to be carefully considered before a decision is made, and that it will continue to work with planning officers to ensure residents’ views are heard during the decision-making process.
Council chair calls it a “major change imposed nationally”
The council has not hidden its frustration with the change. 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.”
The last Planning Committee meeting under the existing arrangements took place on Thursday 22 October. A Full Council meeting on 21 October changed the council’s constitution to reflect the incoming delegation rules.
Councillors sitting on the Planning Committee will now be asked to focus only 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.
What it means for Wandsworth residents
In practice, anyone commenting on a householder application or a small development in the borough should be aware that, from 1 November, their comments will feed into an officer decision rather than automatically earning the proposal a hearing before elected members.
The change lands at a sensitive moment for planning in the borough. Wandsworth Council recently abandoned the regeneration of the Alton estate after costs climbed and the scheme stalled, and large developments in the borough — from estate renewal to town-centre schemes — will now be decided under the narrowed committee route set by the national regulations.
Elsewhere in the capital, councils are reshaping their planning estates too — Tower Hamlets is buying four Canary Wharf office blocks to turn into 180 temporary homes. In Wandsworth, residents who want to follow local developments can do so through the council’s planning register, where officers’ decisions and the reasons for them will be published in the usual way.
Updated: 24 October 2026 at 06:15
