Development Intent
AtlasWestminsterOfficersSusanna Miller
Case officer · Westminster Planning

Susanna Miller.

Active — last recorded decision May 2026

A case officer at Westminster with an approval rate of 85% across 304 decided planning applications, spanning 11 wards.[1] Decision speed and appeal performance publish when decision notices are ingested.

Planning officer304 decisions85% approvalSave
Westminster · 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 →
304
Applications
2020–26
Approval rate over time — tougher or softer 🔒Dashed line = London average
avg 81%95%202095%202178%202293%202380%202473%202583%2026
Approval-rate trend is subscriber dataSubscribe to see the trend →
What they decide — by application type
How they compareVersus peers
Approval rate85% · 56th of 76
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 reports202 officer reports parsed
2%
Approves despite concerns
of approvals record a documented reservation
4%
Negotiated approvals
approvals mentioning revisions/amendments
4%
"On balance" reports
reports using explicit balancing language
84%
Bespoke reasoning
of report text written for the case, not recited
What they write about — vs Westminster's average officer

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

Character & heritage
2.09× borough avg
Materials & detailing
1.34× borough avg
Outlook & amenity
0.49× borough avg
Noise & disturbance
0.4× borough avg
Daylight & sunlight
0.33× borough avg

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

How they reason — coded from their reports

Miller regularly deals with RETROSPECTIVE/unauthorised alterations to listed buildings, itemising each specific unauthorised change room by room and floor by floor before concluding whether the departure from the consented layout is nonetheless acceptable in design terms. She is unusually willing to name where 'works were started before authorisation had been given' or a scheme was carried out 'not in an acceptable manner', then credits subsequent negotiation for reaching an acceptable outcome, but refuses outright where the harm to a principal historic space (a staircase) is judged unacceptable in principle regardless of detailed mitigation.

Observable habits

· itemises each specific unauthorised/retrospective alteration room by room and floor by floor before concluding on the overall acceptability of the departure from a consented layout

· names explicitly where works began without authorisation or were not carried out properly, then credits subsequent negotiation and additional information for reaching an acceptable outcome

· refuses outright where harm to a principal historic space (an open-well staircase) is judged unacceptable IN PRINCIPLE, regardless of mitigating detail such as a mirrored finish

What their reports consistently look for

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: each specific unauthorised alteration, itemised room by room and floor by floor, before judging overall acceptability

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: whether works began without authorisation or were carried out unsatisfactorily, and what subsequent negotiation resolved

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: whether a proposed intervention harms a principal historic space in principle, regardless of detailed mitigating finishes

Assigned Susanna Miller 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

Works were started before authorisation had been given and unfortunatly not carried out in an acceptable manner. Following negotiation and further clarificaton, the proposals for the renovation of the facade are now acceptable

20/00502/LBC

the installation of a lift in this location is unacceptable in principle. In detailed design terms the use of a mirrored finish does nothing to hide or disguise the harm caused to the special interest of the building

20/04169/LBC

Measured from 202 published Westminster 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 202 parsed reports. Whether refusals citing each survive appeal isn't traced per policy yet.

S33
2 times cited
S8
1 times cited
MD1
1 times cited
MD3
1 times cited
Which policies this officer leans on is subscriber intelligenceSubscribe to unlock →
Decisions by ward

Where this officer's caseload concentrates, 2020–26.[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
26/01760/LBC
Listed Building Consent Application
Approved
2026-06-03
25/03738/LBC
Listed Building Consent Application
Withdrawn
2026-06-01
26/01760/LBC
Listed Building Consent Application
Approved
2026-06-03
25/03738/LBC
Listed Building Consent Application
Withdrawn
2026-06-01
Full application history locked
Subscribe to see all 304 decisions →
Consultants approved most— subscriber data
1. Savills
2. Montagu Evans LLP
3. Howard de Walden Estate Limited
4. Frankham Consultancy Group
At a glance
OfficerSusanna Miller
RolePlanning officer
Experience
Applications304 (2020–26)
Approval rate85%
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 Westminster planning register and published decision notices, 2020–26. · 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 — mean effective conditions attached to Westminster decision notices (grant/split), parsed from the published notice text; a borough figure, not yet split per case officer.
  4. [4]"How this officer decides", the policy playbook and all quotes — parsed from 202 published Westminster 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.