Skip to content
PlanningLedger

Ask about London planning decisions: what was approved, what was refused, and why.

Type a question in plain English. The Reading Room reads officer reports, decision notices and appeal decisions from London’s 32 boroughs and the City of London, and emails you a research memo in about 10 minutes, sometimes longer.

Name the borough and the kind of scheme. Please leave out client names and anything confidential. 20 to 2,000 characters.

Ask what you actually need, even if you doubt we hold it.

We’ll email you when your answer is ready: about 10 minutes, sometimes longer.

Free during the limited release · London only · limits apply

See the limits
  • One question until you confirm your email address, then up to 10 a day, subject to capacity.
  • We let in a limited number of new readers each day.
  • London only: the 32 boroughs and the City of London.
  • Free during the limited release. If we ever charge, we’ll tell you first, and answers you already have stay yours.
  • Read the terms

Already a reader? Sign in to the Reading Room

Or start from an example question

Read an example answer

An example answer. We asked this ourselves on 30 September 2026; it took 3 minutes.

“What building heights have been approved in the Old Kent Road opportunity area in Southwark, and what did officers say about height in those decisions?”

Summary

Southwark has approved very tall buildings in the Old Kent Road Opportunity Area (a London Plan area marked for major growth). The tallest in the record are 48 storeys, at Ruby Triangle and Cantium Retail Park. Below those come towers of 38–44 storeys, then schemes of 19–22 storeys, then many of 9–15 storeys. Officers judged height mainly against the draft Area Action Plan's "Stations and Crossings" tiers. They accepted some schemes above the tier for their site, usually by pointing to neighbouring consents or to changes in the masterplan.

Evidence

  1. 18/AP/0897 Southwark

    Ruby Triangle, 17/40/48 storeys, granted with legal agreement.

    Granted
  2. 18/AP/3246 Southwark

    Cantium Retail Park, 3–48 storeys, granted.

    Granted
  3. 19/AP/1710 Southwark

    Carpetright site, 10/19 storeys; officers accept exceeding Tier Three.

    Officer report
Coverage.
- What we hold.
Not answered.
- I have not given a complete list of every height approved in the Opportunity Area.
All 15 references matched to records the Reading Room opened. Any that don’t match are removed before the memo is sent.

We hold documents for 1,275,812 London planning applications validated since October 2016, across the 32 boroughs and the City of London. The Reading Room can search the text of 7,893,794 of those documents; drawings, photographs and documents still waiting to be read are held but not searched.

Of the 1,373 London applications registered in the past week, we already hold documents for 1,315.

Last updated

Application archive:
16 October 2026
Searchable documents:
18 October 2026
Borough figures:
10 October 2026
How we measure coverage

How a question becomes a memo

  1. You ask in plain English

    Name the borough, the kind of scheme and what you want to know. Your first question needs only an email address.

  2. We read the record

    We search officer reports, decision notices and appeal decisions. We work only from our copy of the planning record, not the open web, and every reference in the memo is checked against those records: any that don’t match are removed before you see it.

  3. The memo arrives by email

    It is set out in five parts: Summary, Answer, Evidence, Coverage and Not answered. Coverage says whether figures are full counts or a sample; Not answered says what the record couldn’t tell us. Where a reference has an online record, it links to the council’s or the Planning Inspectorate’s own page.

Questions to start from

Example questions, grouped by who might ask them. We asked each one ourselves: read the answer, or start from it and change it.

Planning consultants

  • “A client wants to convert an office building in Croydon to flats under permitted development. What have recent prior approval decisions in Croydon turned on: light, floorspace, noise, transport? Cite the decisions.”

    Start from this question

Reporters

  • “What building heights have been approved in the Old Kent Road opportunity area in Southwark, and what did officers say about height in those decisions?”

    Start from this question

Where the evidence comes from

  • The planning registers of London’s 32 boroughs and the City of London: application forms, officer reports, decision notices and conditions, downloaded from each council’s own site.
  • Appeal decisions published by the Planning Inspectorate.
  • Adopted local plans and the London Plan.

What it won’t do

  • It won’t predict whether a particular scheme will be approved. It reports what has already been decided.
  • It won’t take sides, or write your objection or planning statement for you. It gives you the decided cases to write them from.
  • It isn’t legal, viability or structural advice.
  • It covers London only.
  • It says what it couldn’t answer. Some subjects are thin in the record today: section 106 agreements, viability, supplementary planning documents and the Community Infrastructure Levy.
  • Answers are written by an AI research agent (Anthropic’s Claude). It works only from our copy of the planning record, not the open web. References that fail our check are removed before the memo is sent.

Check an address

A free constraint check for any London address: flood zones, conservation areas, listed buildings, Article 4 directions and 8 more, in seconds.

Then ask the Reading Room what has been decided nearby.

London planning data