Development Intent
AtlasBrentOfficersLiam Mcfadden
Case officer · Brent Planning

Liam McFadden.

Last recorded decision Mar 2022 — no decisions in this record since

A case officer at Brent with an approval rate of 56% across 202 decided planning applications, spanning 16 wards.[1] Decision speed and appeal performance publish when decision notices are ingested.

Planning officer202 decisions56% approvalSave
Brent · ward map
Approval rate — by ward
Lower ~68%
Higher ~90%
ShowingAll years · subscriber →across all years on record — a period re-scopes the headline figures and the trend
At a glanceEach metric links to the investigation behind it
All investigations →
202
Applications
2020–22
Approval rate over time — tougher or softer 🔒Dashed line = London average
avg 81%58%202054%202161%2022
Approval-rate trend is subscriber dataSubscribe to see the trend →
What they decide — by application type
How they compareVersus peers
Approval rate56% · 40th of 43
higher is betterdashed = London avg
Decision time · publishes with decision notices
in development
Appeal overturn · publishes with decision notices
in development
How this officer decides — from their own reports260 officer reports parsed
12%
Approves despite concerns
of approvals record a documented reservation
5%
Negotiated approvals
approvals mentioning revisions/amendments
20%
"On balance" reports
reports using explicit balancing language
64%
Bespoke reasoning
of report text written for the case, not recited
What they write about — vs Brent's average officer

Topic mentions per 1,000 words of their own report text (boilerplate stripped), indexed against all parsed Brent reports. Attention, not stance.

Energy & sustainability
2.02× borough avg
Transport & parking
1.93× borough avg
Daylight & sunlight
1.17× borough avg
Precedent & consistency
1.15× borough avg
Outlook & amenity
1.04× borough avg

Mark = borough average (1×). Bar capped at 2×.

How they reason — coded from their reports

McFadden's reports on HMOs and multi-unit conversions set out room-by-room floor areas against the Technical Housing Standards and flag when combined bathroom/kitchenette facilities tip a unit from a genuine HMO bedroom into an effectively self-contained flat requiring full London Plan space standards. Flat-by-flat GIA and amenity-space tables are used for larger schemes.

Observable habits

· flags when a room's combined kitchenette and ensuite facilities mean it should be assessed as a self-contained flat rather than an HMO bedroom

· sets out flat-by-flat GIA and private/communal amenity space in a labelled table for multi-unit schemes

· checks air quality assessment currency (e.g. flags an assessment as several years out of date) before accepting it as sufficient evidence

What their reports consistently look for

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: whether a room's kitchenette and ensuite combination effectively makes it a self-contained flat rather than a genuine HMO bedroom

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: a flat-by-flat table of GIA and amenity space against the applicable minimum for larger schemes

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: whether a submitted air quality or similar technical assessment is still current, not several years out of date

Assigned Liam McFadden on a live case?What they pay attention to, how they reason, and what their reports consistently look for — so you can address it before they raise it.Subscribe to unlock →
In their own words

As these units would contain both bathroom and cooking facilities they would effectively be self-contained units. As such the London Plan Space standards are considered to apply and none of these units would meet the minimum space standards required for a 1 or 2 person studio flat (37sqm) and would be unacceptable.

20/0030

They note that the assessment is dated 2017 and as such is 3 years out of date. It is considered that this information is insufficient to demonstrate that the current proposal would have an acceptable impact on local air quality

20/0030

Measured from 260 published Brent officer reports written by this officer, with recited policy boilerplate stripped before any counting. These describe how this officer works and writes — they are not outcome predictions. Every quote is from a named public report.

Policy playbook — what this officer cites[3]

The policies this officer cites most in their own reports — times cited across 260 parsed reports. Whether refusals citing each survive appeal isn't traced per policy yet.

DMP1DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT GENERAL
81 times cited
DMP12
46 times cited
T6Car parking
44 times cited
DMP18
34 times cited
DMP19
34 times cited
D4Delivering Good Design
29 times cited
7.4
28 times cited
7.6
26 times cited
Which policies this officer leans on is subscriber intelligenceSubscribe to unlock →
Decisions by ward

Where this officer's caseload concentrates, 2020–22.[1] Click the map above to focus this page on a ward, or a row to open the ward.

Recent applications
Address
Reference
Type
Outcome
Date
22/0218
Householder
Approved
2022-05-11
22/0274
Full Planning Permission
Refused
2022-04-29
22/0218
Householder
Approved
2022-05-11
22/0274
Full Planning Permission
Refused
2022-04-29
Full application history locked
Subscribe to see all 202 decisions →
Consultants approved most— subscriber data
1. SAM Planning Services
2. Construct 360 Ltd T/A DontMoveExtend.com
3. KDB BUILDING DESIGNS LTD
4. Manu Design Limited
At a glance
OfficerLiam McFadden
BoroughBrent
RolePlanning officer
Experience
Applications202 (2020–22)
Approval rate56%
London approval avg81%
Who decides here
GovernmentMayor of LondonCouncilCommitteeOfficersDecisionsApplicantsInspectorate
Related investigations
When committees overrule officers like this one →
How often members depart from officer recommendations, and how those overrides fare at appeal.
How much gets decided without a committee →
The delegated share by borough and officer — where the real power over decisions sits.
Sources & method
  1. [1]Applications decided, approval rate, per-year trend and ward breakdown — London Borough of Brent planning register and published decision notices, 2020–22. · methodology
  2. [2]Appeal overturn and decision-time benchmarks — Planning Inspectorate (PINS) appeal decisions and application date pairs; not yet computed per officer, shown as a dash until they are. · PINS appeals casework
  3. [3]Condition load — Brent's decision-notice parsing is limited coverage, so no borough or officer figure is shown.
  4. [4]"How this officer decides", the policy playbook and all quotes — parsed from 260 published Brent officer reports written by this officer, recited policy boilerplate stripped before counting; disposition text coded from their own reasoning with every quote machine-verified verbatim. Descriptive of how they work — not outcome predictions.
Methodology is published in full so every number is traceable to its primary source.