Loft and attic conversions in Battersea
A loft or attic conversion in Battersea is decided by Wandsworth council, which granted 92% of its householder applications in the latest four quarters. Whether you need one comes down to a volume sum: 40 cubic metres of added roof space for a terrace house, 50 for other houses. Our drawings start from £695.
Fixed fee from £495 drawings + £200 survey (£695 total) · all prices
Prefer to talk it through?
Doing the volume sum before you draw anything
The permitted development limit is about cubic content, not floor area. It is 40 cubic metres for a terrace house and 50 cubic metres for any other house, and it is measured against the original roof space. A previous dormer, even one built by an earlier owner, uses up part of the allowance.
So the order of work is: confirm whether the house counts as a terrace, find out what was added before, measure the roof, then size the new dormer to fit. We show the sum on the drawings. The rule sits in Schedule 2, Part 1 of the General Permitted Development Order.
Attic or loft, the council wants the same drawings
Some searchers say attic, others loft. Either way the council wants the same documents: existing and proposed plans, a section through the roof, elevations, and a location plan. We prepare them as one set for a fixed fee from £695, delivered in 7 days, with free redraws until the council or building control is satisfied.
Keep the set-back in mind when you ask for the dormer to be as big as possible. The face of a roof enlargement must sit not less than 0.2 metres from the eaves, so the eaves line is what limits the width and height of the rear wall.
Flats and maisonettes are different: Class B does not cover them, so a loft above one needs an application. Our Wandsworth flat conversion drawings page covers that situation.
We prepare them as one set for a fixed fee from £695, delivered in 7 days, with free redraws until the council or building control is satisfied.
What Wandsworth's figures say
In our analysis of MHCLG planning application statistics, table PS2, Wandsworth made 977 householder decisions across the four quarters from 2025 Q3 to 2026 Q2 and granted 92%. Of those that were not prior approvals, 91% were decided within 8 weeks.
At appeal, 204 householder cases in the borough were decided between 2021 and 2026 in the Planning Inspectorate casework database (release 2609), and 36% were allowed. Wandsworth also decided 695 certificates of lawful development of all kinds across the eight quarters to 2026 Q2, in our analysis of table PS1. All of these cover every kind of householder project and describe past decisions.
Our analysis of the MHCLG Planning Data Platform datasets (bulk snapshot retrieved 19 Oct 2026) counts 47 live conservation-area entries on the national register for the borough. If your street is one of them, Class B no longer applies. Check the council's own map.
Next steps for an SW11 loft
Send us the address and a few photographs of the roof and we will tell you which route fits. The borough-wide Wandsworth loft conversion page covers the appeals record, and the hip-to-gable page for Wandsworth covers side-roof conversions.
Sources
Every figure on this page, where it comes from and a link to the original.
| Figure | Source | Link |
|---|---|---|
| £695 | DrawingsDirect starting fixed fee for rear dormer loft conversion permitted development drawings, from the published price list | drawingsdirect.co.uk |
| 40 cubic metres | GPDO 2015 Sch 2 Pt 1 Class B.1(d)(i): roof additions may add up to 40 cubic metres to the roof space of a terrace house (source wording: "40 cubic metres in the case of a terrace house") | www.legislation.gov.uk |
| 50 cubic metres | GPDO 2015 Sch 2 Pt 1 Class B.1(d)(ii): roof additions may add up to 50 cubic metres to the roof space of any other house (source wording: "50 cubic metres in any other case") | www.legislation.gov.uk |
| 977 | Our analysis of MHCLG planning application statistics, table PS2 (district open data table) (released 24 Sep 2026, quarters to 2026 Q2) | www.gov.uk |
| 92% | Our analysis of MHCLG planning application statistics, table PS2 (district open data table) (released 24 Sep 2026, quarters to 2026 Q2) | www.gov.uk |
| 91% | Our analysis of MHCLG planning application statistics, table PS2 (district open data table) (released 24 Sep 2026, quarters to 2026 Q2) | www.gov.uk |
| 204 | Our analysis of Planning Inspectorate Casework Database (released 1 Oct 2026 (Casework Database 2609)) | www.gov.uk |
| 36% | Our analysis of Planning Inspectorate Casework Database (released 1 Oct 2026 (Casework Database 2609)) | www.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 |
| 695 | Our analysis of MHCLG planning application statistics, table PS1 (district open data table) (released 24 Sep 2026, quarters to 2026 Q2) | www.gov.uk |
Questions people ask
Do I need planning permission for a loft conversion in Battersea?
What is the difference between an attic conversion and a loft conversion?
How many loft conversions does Wandsworth grant?
Photographs: David Hawgood (CC BY-SA 2.0).
