Wandsworth Local Plan Partial Review

Overview

The Council’s Local Plan is a document that sets a long-term strategy for development in Wandsworth, and contains the planning policies (or ‘rules’) that are used to help decide planning applications.

Since 2023, the Council has been reviewing its Local Plan to make sure developments deliver more of the types of homes that are most needed in the Borough, including more homes for social rent. The Council is now publishing its final proposals for public consultation.

The publication version of the Wandsworth Local Plan Partial Review is available for public consultation from Monday 13th January to Monday 24th February 2025.

This consultation is the final opportunity to have your say on whether you feel the Council’s proposed policies should become part of the Wandsworth Local Plan.

We understand planning consultations can be technical and hard to understand. If you’d like to view our non-technical summary of the Local Plan Partial Review, you can do so here. 

As part of its Local Plan Partial Review, the Council is proposing to update six policies in total, alongside updates to supporting and other text required for consistency or clarity. These six policies are:

• Policy LP23: Affordable Housing
• Policy LP24: Housing Mix 
• Policy LP28: Purpose-Built Student Accommodation 
• Policy LP29: Housing with Shared Facilities 
• Policy LP30: Build to Rent 
• Policy LP31: Specialist Housing for Vulnerable People and for Older People

These six proposed policies are the main subject of this consultation.

Before the Council can ‘adopt’ its proposed policies as part of the Wandsworth Local Plan, a Government-appointed Inspector will need to test whether they are “sound”, legally compliant, and whether the Council has met its “duty to co-operate” with other public bodies. This process is called the Examination.

Responses to the consultation should aim to help the Government-appointed Inspector decide whether the proposals should go ahead or not (i.e. whether they are sound and legally compliant), or any changes that should be made to them.

There are four different tests of soundness, which require Local Plans to:

• Positively prepared – set a strategy which, as a minimum, seeks to meet the area’s objectively assessed needs and be informed by agreements with other authorities
• Justified - set an appropriate strategy, taking into account the reasonable alternatives, and be based on proportionate evidence
• Effective – be deliverable over the period of the plan, and based on effective joint working on cross-boundary strategic matters
• Consistent with national policy – enable the delivery of sustainable development

A focused version of the Council’s proposed policies can be viewed on our online planning portal or by viewing the PDF. 

By law we are also required to publish a Sustainability Appraisal – this is a document that assesses the social, environmental and economic impacts of our proposed policies. You can read this here.

Have your say

• Online using the link below
• By emailing your response to planningpolicy@wandsworth.gov.uk
• By posting your response to Spatial Planning and Design, Place Division, Town Hall, Wandsworth High Street, London, SW18 2PU

All responses must be received by 11.59pm on Monday 24th February 2025. Please note that responses will not be treated as confidential and those submitted anonymously will not be accepted.

The consultation is open to everyone and you do not need to have previously responded in order to respond this time. However, if you wish to participate in the next steps involving the Government Inspector, you must respond to this new consultation.

More background information on the Local Plan Partial Review process, and all supporting and evidence documents that have informed the Council’s proposals, can be found at www.wandsworth.gov.uk/LocalPlanReview.

If you need to request hard copy materials or any other format, or if you need help to access the consultation, please contact planningpolicy@wandsworth.gov.uk or (020) 8871 6000.