Planning applications in Croydon

Planning in Croydon

Planning permission is harder to win in Croydon than across the areas we cover. Croydon London Borough Council has decided more than 50,000 planning applications since 2016, and about 1 in 5 was refused, a good deal more often than across the areas we cover, where about 1 in 7 is refused. Its neighbours differ: Bromley is stricter still, refusing about 1 in 4, while Lambeth and Sutton refuse about 1 in 6 and Merton about 1 in 7, so Croydon is stricter than those three.

The strictness runs through nearly every kind of work. Rear extensions are the biggest category, with more than 19,000 applications, and about 1 in 5 was refused, against 1 in 7 across the areas we cover. Side extensions, front extensions and porches, and windows and doors are all refused about 1 in 5 times as well. Loft conversions and dormers (more than 8,000 applications), garden rooms and outbuildings, driveways and dropped kerbs, fences, walls and gates and solar panels are each refused about 1 in 4 times, and those are the projects most at risk here. A garden room, for example, is refused about 1 in 4 times in Croydon against about 1 in 7 across the areas we cover, so it is worth checking what was approved on nearby streets before you commit to a design.

When Croydon refuses, the reasons vary. About four in ten refusals mentioned parking, access or road safety, and about half mentioned size, bulk or design. About four in ten raised the look of the street or area, and around a third mentioned neighbours’ light, privacy or outlook. Roughly three in ten said not enough information had been supplied, so a complete application matters.

Over 2023 to 2025, the median householder application took 8.0 weeks, and about 63 in every 100 of the 2,759 decided were settled within 8 weeks.

The recent picture is gentler. Croydon received 3,627 applications in 2025, against an average of 4,283 a year in the three years before, and the busiest year on record was 2021 with 5,615. The refusal rate in 2025, about 1 in 5, was lower than the 1 in 3 of the previous three years.

Figures in this section as of 9 October 2026.