Wandsworth planning guide: what the council asks for and the reports that answer it
Wandsworth checks applications against a Local Validation Checklist dated July 2026 and a Local Plan adopted on 19 July 2023. For a house extension, loft or basement, a handful of its rows decide what has to go in with the drawings: flood zones, heritage, daylight, basements and construction management. This guide sets them out and names the report that answers each. A planning constraints report for your address costs £19.
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Wandsworth's Local Plan 2023 to 2038
The council's adoption statement says: "The new Wandsworth Local Plan was adopted on 19 July 2023." It looks ahead to 2038. The plan has a policy written for exactly the work most homeowners propose: LP5, Residential Extensions and Alterations.
LP5 supports an extension or alteration where, among other tests, "an extension, dormer window or other alteration to a roof is confined to the rear of the building" or, if visible from the street, sympathetic to its style. Rear extensions must be subservient to the original house and leave "a substantial depth of the original rear garden" free of buildings and structures, lightwells included. Side extensions must not create a terrace effect by filling the gap between buildings.
Those tests are visual, so they are decided on the drawings. Elevations that show the rear depth against the garden, and a street elevation for any side addition, answer LP5 more directly than a paragraph of argument. Our rear extension drawings are set out that way, and the Wandsworth planning permission page covers applications in the borough.
Wandsworth Council Planning Guide
from £19
Every price is the full fixed fee you pay. No VAT is charged. Council application fees are paid to the council separately.
What you get
- The rows of Wandsworth's checklist that apply to home extensions, in plain words
- The report that answers each, with its fixed fee shown before you ask
- Links to Wandsworth's planning search, checklist, Local Plan and building control pages
- A drawings check against the council's scale, section and roof plan rules
- One enquiry form for your postcode, property type and the report you need
- Check the designations
Flood zone, conservation area and listing change the checklist. A constraints report shows all three for your address.
- Match the rows
Each checklist row has its own trigger, such as flood zones 2, 3a and 3b or a basement, so most homes need only a few.
- Draw to the scales
Plans at 1:100, 1:200 or 1:500 as appropriate, sections where heights or levels change, and a scale bar.
- Send reports with drawings
A missing report is a reason to invalidate, so heritage, flood or daylight papers travel with the plans.
What a drawings review checks for Wandsworth
The Local Validation Checklist, July 2026 opens with the national items. For drawings: a site location plan at 1:1250 or 1:2500 with a red line and a blue line for other land you own, a site plan, floor and roof plans, sections, and elevations, each "drawn to an identified scale (1:100, 1:200 or 1:500 as appropriate)". The site plan row says a linear scale bar is required. Sections are needed for new and altered buildings and changes in ground levels.
Plans must also show the direction of north. A Design and Access Statement is asked for in designated areas where an application involves one or more dwellings, and for major development.
We check a set against these rows before submission. If you do not yet have measured existing plans, a measured building survey supplies the starting point, and planning permission drawings build on it.
The national Planning Data register lists 47 conservation areas for Wandsworth.
Flood zones and the documents they trigger
The checklist is direct: a flood risk assessment is required for "all applications for developments located in flood zones 2, 3a and 3b". Outside those zones, in Zone 1, it applies to sites of one hectare or more, land the Environment Agency has flagged as having critical drainage problems, or land the council's strategic flood risk assessment shows at increased future risk.
In zones 2 and 3 a sequential test may also be needed if one has not already been done for your type of development, and a Flood Emergency Plan applies to large schemes or where safe access and egress cannot be achieved. The Environment Agency flood map for planning shows your zone for free. Our flood risk assessment service writes the assessment, and the Wandsworth flood page goes through the borough's flood areas.
Heritage: 47 conservation areas and who writes the statement
The national Planning Data register lists 47 conservation areas for Wandsworth. It is a count of register entries, not a comparison with any other borough.
Wandsworth's checklist says all applications affecting a heritage asset or its setting need a heritage statement, and that it "should be carried out by a specialist historic environment consultant". It also asks that any relevant Conservation Area Appraisal be considered, and that, as a minimum, the Historic Environment Record is reviewed and referenced. The statement may sit inside the Design and Access Statement.
Read that second sentence plainly: the council states a preference for a specialist. Our heritage statement is written by our own team. For an ordinary house in a conservation area that is what most owners need. If your building is listed at a high grade, or the case officer has asked for a named specialist, say so on the enquiry before you order and we will tell you whether we are the right fit.
Works to or beside a Listed Building that add a basement or load the structure need a schedule of works and a Structural Impact Assessment under the same checklist, tied to policies LP3 and LP6.
Daylight and sunlight
Row 18 of the checklist applies to "proposals where there may be an impact on levels of daylight and sunlight for the host building or adjoining properties (including their gardens or outdoor spaces)". The method is the Building Research Establishment guide, Site layout planning for daylight and sunlight, 2022 edition. The council also offers advice on scope at pre-application stage.
That wording is wide, so a rear extension beside a neighbour's kitchen window can trigger it. The quickest way to find out is to test the extension against the BRE lines on your own plans first. If it clearly passes, say so on the drawings. If it is close, our own team prepares a daylight and sunlight report from your drawings.
Basements under policy LP6
Policy LP6 permits a new basement or an extension to one only where it "would result in no more than one storey of basement accommodation below ground level". For homes it also caps the basement at a maximum of 50% of the existing rear garden land or other undeveloped garden area.
Those limits can be tested on a sketch before any fees are spent. Our basement conversion feasibility does that against the policy and your flood zone, and the basement conversion drawings follow if it works.
Building regulations and Wandsworth Building Control
Wandsworth Building Control takes applications through the Planning Portal. Its application page says: "When making a full plans application you need to pay 40% of the total charge when you apply." The balance is invoiced after the first site visit. Building Notice, Regularisation, Demolition and Temporary Structure forms are listed on the same page.
Planning drawings do not carry the construction detail a Full Plans application needs. Our building regulations drawings are made for it, and building regulations reports shows which route fits. Where building control has already queried your plans, building control comments answered deals with them.
Party wall
The Party Wall etc. Act 1996 is national, and in Wandsworth's streets of terraces and semis it often applies to a rear extension or a loft. It is separate from planning. Our party wall services page tells you for free whether it applies, and what notice to serve.
Construction management plans and the engineer's signature
Row 29 of the checklist asks for a construction management plan for all major applications, for sites in confined locations "including basements and subterranean developments" or near sensitive receptors, where substantial excavation is proposed, and for basements to listed buildings or heritage assets. Content is set out in lettered points: noise and vibration, waste, dust, traffic routing, security and more.
One line matters for cost: the plan "must be signed by a Chartered Civil Engineer (MICE) or Chartered Structural Engineer". A drawings practice cannot give that signature. Our construction management plan service writes the plan content from your decision notice and drawings, so check before you order whether your case falls under the signing rule, and if it does, an engineer must sign it.
Sources
Every figure on this page, where it comes from and a link to the original.
| Figure | Source | Link |
|---|---|---|
| 19 July 2023 | Wandsworth Local Plan 2023-2038 Adoption Statement (source wording: "The new Wandsworth Local Plan was adopted on 19 July 2023.") | www.wandsworth.gov.uk |
| July 2026 | Wandsworth Borough Council Local Validation Checklist (title page date) | www.wandsworth.gov.uk |
| confined to the rear of the building | Wandsworth Local Plan 2023 policy LP5 A.2 (source wording: "an extension, dormer window or other alteration to a roof is confined to the rear of the building") | www.wandsworth.gov.uk |
| flood zones 2, 3a and 3b | Wandsworth validation checklist, row 20 Flood Risk Assessment (source wording: "all applications for developments located in flood zones 2, 3a and 3b") | www.wandsworth.gov.uk |
| specialist historic environment consultant | Wandsworth validation checklist, row 27 Heritage Statement (source wording: "should be carried out by a specialist historic environment consultant") | www.wandsworth.gov.uk |
| Chartered Civil Engineer (MICE) | Wandsworth validation checklist, row 29 Construction Management Plan (source wording: "must be signed by a Chartered Civil Engineer (MICE) or Chartered Structural Engineer") | www.wandsworth.gov.uk |
| Building Research Establishment | Wandsworth validation checklist, row 18 Daylight and sunlight assessments: method is the Building Research Establishment guide, Site layout planning for daylight and sunlight (2022) | www.wandsworth.gov.uk |
| 47 | Our analysis of MHCLG Planning Data Platform conservation-area and article-4-direction datasets (bulk snapshot retrieved 19 Oct 2026) | www.planning.data.gov.uk |
| 40% | Wandsworth Building Control, make an application (source wording: "When making a full plans application you need to pay 40% of the total charge when you apply.") | www.wandsworth.gov.uk |
| one storey | Wandsworth Local Plan 2023 policy LP6 A.1 (source wording: "no more than one storey of basement accommodation below ground level") | www.wandsworth.gov.uk |
Every report on this page, with its fixed fee
| Report | Fixed fee | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Planning constraints report | £19 | Conservation area, listing and flood zone for your address, from open data Written up on fixedfeeplans.co.uk. |
| Flood risk assessment | £395 | Needed in flood zones 2, 3a and 3b under Wandsworth's checklist Written up on fixedfeeplans.co.uk. |
| Heritage statement | £595 | For listed buildings and conservation areas, with the Historic Environment Record reviewed Written up on fixedfeeplans.co.uk. |
| Daylight and sunlight report | £895 | BRE method, where an extension could affect a neighbour's windows or garden Written up on www.propertyarchitecture.co.uk. |
| Construction management plan | £575 | For basements and confined sites; read the engineer's signature note below first Written up on www.drawings4planning.co.uk. |
| Basement conversion feasibility | £495 drawings + £200 survey (£695 total) | Tests a basement against Local Plan policy LP6 before drawings are made |
| Tree survey for planning | £445 | Tree survey and protection plan where a tree sits near the works Written up on www.propertyarchitecture.co.uk. |
| Building control comments answered | £245 | If Wandsworth Building Control has queried your plans |
Questions people ask
Where is Wandsworth's local validation checklist?
Does my Wandsworth extension need a flood risk assessment?
How deep can a basement be in Wandsworth?
Does Wandsworth want a specialist to write my heritage statement?
What does Wandsworth Building Control charge up front?
Photographs: PAUL FARMER (CC BY-SA 2.0).
