Lewisham's planning committee is about to lose 83% of its caseload. Here's who decides your scheme instead.
From 31 October the national scheme of delegation applies in Lewisham. Of the committee's classified caseload over the last twelve months, 83% was exactly the minor and householder work that must now be officer-decided.
From 31 October 2026 the national scheme of delegation applies in Lewisham, as in every English planning authority. Applications for 1 to 9 homes on sites under half a hectare, householder applications and minor commercial schemes must be decided by planning officers. No committee, no councillor call-in, no exceptions.
In Lewisham the change is near total for small schemes. Of the committee decisions in our archive over the last twelve months whose application type is classified, 83 per cent (20 of 24) were exactly these minor and householder applications. Under the new rules, the overwhelming majority of Lewisham's current committee business would never reach members.
What still gets a committee
Major schemes, departures from the development plan and applications a chief planning officer and a nominated member jointly certify as significant can still be heard, by a committee now capped at 13 members. Our archive of Lewisham committee behaviour remains the record of how those members vote when a scheme is large enough to qualify.
What replaces the committee for everyone else
A named case officer. And officers differ. Across Lewisham's active case officers we measure approval rates ranging from 21 to 93 per cent — a spread of 72 percentage points between the most and least permissive officers handling comparable cases in the same borough.
For anyone bringing a small scheme forward in Lewisham the practical consequence is clear: the political risk is gone, the human risk is measurable, and it is measurable in advance. Before you buy the site or fix the design, you can know whether your application is officer-decided (for 1 to 9 homes it is), and what the officers deciding schemes like yours in Lewisham have done before.
In Lewisham 83% of last year's committee caseload now moves to officers. The 72 percentage point spread between officers means who assesses your application matters more than which borough you are in.