Free property check · England
Free Southwark permitted development checker
Could your home project use permitted development? Start with your full address and tell us what you want to build.
You do not need to know the planning route before you start. The check uses available public records and your project details to provide guidance, not a council decision.
About the planning data
Checked against 20.6 million UK planning applications on file across 420 planning authorities. Approval rates from 2,343,419 decisions we classified across 181 councils in England.
What are you checking?
Whether your proposed work may qualify for permitted development, needs a prior approval process or requires a planning application. The property and the complete proposal matter, including earlier additions and conditions on previous permissions.
Read how prior approval works and how planning timescales differ by route.
A postcode locates an area; it cannot establish rights for a particular house. Use your full property address in the checker.
Find guidance for your project
- Rear extensions and larger home extensions
- Side and wraparound extensions
- Loft conversions and dormers
- Garden rooms and outbuildings
- Garage conversions
- Porches
- Two-storey extensions
- Basements
For development beyond a home improvement, read our new build and change of use guides. Those projects have different eligibility tests and need a project-specific assessment.
Local checks in Southwark
Check the wording, map and effective date of any Article 4 direction, the property's planning conditions and whether designated land affects the relevant right. A restriction on one type of work does not automatically prohibit every alteration.
Use these resources for Southwark. Confirm the authority for your address if you are close to a boundary or the area has changed council.
- Southwark official website and planning information
- Search Southwark planning applications and decision notices
- Southwark planning authority boundary and source
- Find the planning authority for your postcode
We have not verified every local restriction for every address in Southwark. Confirm property-specific details against the authority's current records before relying on permitted development.
Our Southwark archive contains 10,222 classified home project decision records. Explore Southwark decisions by project type. These records mix application routes: an approval rate is not a permitted development eligibility score. See the coverage and methodology.
Permitted development restrictions in Southwark
Southwark publishes separate Article 4 directions for places and uses, including the Sunray Estate and Class E to residential conversions. Check the mapped area and the particular direction for your work; these are different restrictions, not one borough-wide rule for every alteration.
- Southwark Article 4 directions and map
- Southwark conservation areas, maps and appraisals
- Southwark householder application checklist
- Southwark Householder Development SPD (2025)
Sources reviewed . Check the source maps, wording and effective dates against your property and proposed work.
Distinguish a building serving your home from a separate dwelling
The intended use matters as well as the size of a garden building. Describe how it will serve the existing home, and check whether the work and use qualify for PD. The Upland Road example below was a full planning application with an obligation to keep the accommodation ancillary. Read the council guidance.
What reviewed local decisions show
These examples use official planning records. Each identifies the decision date and links to the evidence reviewed. They are not Planning Approvals projects or a prediction for another property.
67A Upland Road: ancillary accommodation secured by an undertaking
26/AP/0344 · Committee resolved to grant subject to conditions and an undertaking, 30 June 2026
The proposal replaced a garage with two-storey accommodation serving 67C Upland Road. The report assessed the relationship between the sites despite a shared access road. The committee resolution required conditions, addendum amendments and a unilateral undertaking; the report explains that the building must not become a separate self-contained home.
What to check: Establish the intended use and relationship to the main home before relying on another outbuilding approval. This resolution was not a grant of PD rights or permission for an independent dwelling.
Read the committee decision · Read the officer report (PDF)
Related guidance: Outbuildings and PD
Check the planning register for the issued notice, exact conditions and any later appeal or revised application. A committee resolution is not a substitute for those documents.
Certificate records to investigate
Selected archive records, not a representative sample or a prediction for your address. The descriptions below are archive excerpts and may be shortened; read the original decision and plans before relying on them.
- 26/AP/0050 · Recorded approved (2026)
Certificate of Lawful Development (proposed) for the conversion of the existing garage into an office space
Search the council register for 26/AP/0050 - 20/AP/2523 · Recorded refused (2020)
Certificate of lawful development (proposed) for the conversion of a garage into habitable accommodation
Search the council register for 20/AP/2523
A certificate concerns the lawfulness of the scheme described. Another property's certificate does not establish your permitted development rights. Read the archive's coverage and limitations.
Do you need a permitted development certificate?
A proposed lawful development certificate gives formal confirmation that the development described is lawful. It is optional and is different from prior approval or a planning application. Read our lawful development certificate guide.
The free check does not grant permission or replace a certificate. Check official certificate guidance and the government's explanation of planning routes.