Lambeth built 662 homes against a target of 1,335 and has 4.21 years of housing land, so the presumption applies. The new Local Plan, and what is approved in Brixton.
Planning in Lambeth is decided against two documents: the Lambeth Local Plan 2021, adopted in September 2021, and the London Plan 2021, which sets the housing number the borough has to hit. Both are being replaced, and in the meantime the borough is missing its target by a wide margin, which changes how applications are judged.
This page sets out where the numbers actually stand, what the new Local Plan timetable is, and the schemes that have gone through recently, all from the council’s own published documents.
The numbers that decide applications
| Measure | Figure |
|---|---|
| Annual housing target (London Plan 2021) | 1,335 homes a year |
| Ten-year target, 2019/20 to 2028/29 | 13,350 homes |
| Net homes completed, 2023/24 | 662 |
| Gross homes approved, 2023/24 | 1,075 (784 net) |
| Five-year housing land supply | 4.21 years |
| Housing Delivery Test, 2023 measurement | 74% |
Take those one at a time, because each has a consequence.
662 against 1,335. Lambeth completed 662 net additional homes in 2023/24, just under half its annual target (Housing Development Pipeline Report 2023/24). The council attributes the shortfall to a legacy of schemes that did not start on site during the pandemic, build cost inflation, labour shortages and interest rate rises. It is not a Lambeth-only story, but the gap here is large.
4.21 years of housing land. To satisfy the five years from 2024/25 to 2028/29 the borough needs 8,010 homes in the pipeline, that being five years at 1,335 plus a 20% buffer. Its own trajectory projects 6,737, a shortfall of 1,273. That is where the 4.21 figure comes from.
What it means for you: a council that cannot demonstrate five years of housing land is in a materially weaker position when it refuses a housing scheme, and appeals become harder to win. If you are objecting to a development near you, this is the single most important fact on the page, and it is the council’s own published number.
74% on the Housing Delivery Test. The 2023 measurement, published by government in December 2024, put Lambeth at 74%, which required the council to produce a Housing Action Plan; it published one in 2025 (Lambeth). A 2024 measurement has not been published, because government is running a delayed HDT timetable.
The new Local Plan: consultation opens 1 September 2026
Lambeth gave formal notice on 30 June 2026 that it has begun work on a new Local Plan, and published the timetable at the same time. Under the government’s reformed system a plan must be produced in 30 months and pass three “gateway” assessments on the way.
| Stage | Date |
|---|---|
| Notice of intention to commence, and timetable published | 30 June 2026 |
| Scoping consultation opens | 1 September 2026 |
| Scoping consultation closes | 9 October 2026 |
| Gateway 1 assessment published | 31 October 2026 |
| Consultation on content and evidence | 1 July to 12 August 2027 |
| Gateway 2 submitted to the Planning Inspectorate | 31 October 2027 |
| Consultation on the proposed Local Plan | 3 July to 14 August 2028 |
| Gateway 3 assessment submitted | 31 October 2028 |
| Submitted for examination | 30 November 2028 |
| Target adoption | 30 April 2029 |
What it means for you: the first and easiest chance to influence what the plan covers is the scoping consultation between 1 September and 9 October 2026, which is a five-week window and the only stage before the council starts writing. After that the next opportunity is nearly a year away. Details are on the council’s new Local Plan pages.
Until April 2029 the 2021 Local Plan remains the plan in force, so anything you read in it still applies to an application decided today.
What is being approved
288 homes at Brixton Station Road and International House. The planning applications committee granted conditional permission on 24 March 2026 for a council-led scheme at 6 Canterbury Crescent (International House) and 49 Brixton Station Road, the Pop Brixton site. It provides 288 homes, of which nearly 100 are social rent, alongside workspace and an enterprise and community hub. Roughly a third are three-bedroom and about half two-bedroom. The council’s development partner is London Square (Lambeth, 25 March 2026).
92 homes on Leigham Court Road, Streatham. A scheme with Pocket Living close to Streatham Hill station secured planning resolution in November 2025 for 92 homes, half of them affordable, including 15 social rent homes for people on Lambeth’s housing register (Lambeth, 19 November 2025).
Clapham Park, the long one. Metropolitan Thames Valley and Countryside are part way through the borough’s largest regeneration, with over 1,750 new and refurbished homes completed and over 2,500 more planned between 2025 and 2035, plus a new high street, two public parks and community facilities (Your Clapham Park). The council’s own pipeline report records 285 affordable homes under construction or part implemented at Clapham Park at the end of 2023/24, the largest single contribution in the borough, with a further 224 at the Gasholder Station site.
The affordable housing picture
The pipeline report is more useful on affordable housing than any press release, because it counts what is actually being built rather than what is promised.
- 161 gross affordable homes were completed in 2023/24.
- 38% of the gross homes completed under permissions for ten or more units were affordable.
- 3,489 gross affordable homes sat in the development pipeline at the end of 2023/24, of which 2,095 were low-cost rented.
- 1,923 affordable homes were under construction or part implemented; a further 1,566 had permission but had not started.
What it means for you: the affordable pipeline is large and the completions are small, which is the same gap as the headline housing number and has the same cause. Permissions are not the bottleneck in Lambeth. Building is.
The Growth Plan, and where the borough thinks growth goes
Separately from the Local Plan, Lambeth’s Cabinet adopted a Growth Plan on 15 July 2025 aiming to enable 10,000 new homes and more than 20,000 jobs over ten years. It is an ambition rather than a planning policy, and most of those homes would be built by private developers and housing associations rather than the council.
The sites it names are worth knowing, because they are where large applications will come from:
- 76 Upper Ground on the South Bank, the former IBM offices, which will host Lego’s London workforce from 2027.
- The SC1 London Health and Life Sciences Innovation District, a partnership with King’s College London.
- The Waterloo station masterplan.
- The Old Vic Backstage, adding nearly 9,000 square feet of cultural space.
Details are in the council’s own announcement.
How to check or comment on an application near you
Every application in the borough is on Lambeth’s public register. Search by street or postcode on Lambeth’s Public Access portal, where you can also read the officer’s report, the objections and the decision notice.
One practical note from watching the register: a quiet week can return almost nothing. In the week validated on 3 August 2026 the portal held a single new application, while the same week carried ten decisions. If a search comes back empty, try the decided list rather than assuming the portal is broken.
Frequently asked questions
How many homes does Lambeth have to build each year?
1,335 a year, set by the London Plan 2021, which is 13,350 over the ten years from 2019/20 to 2028/29. In 2023/24 the borough completed 662.
Does Lambeth have a five-year housing land supply?
No. The council’s own figure is 4.21 years, a shortfall of 1,273 homes against the 8,010 needed for 2024/25 to 2028/29 including a 20% buffer.
When can I comment on the new Lambeth Local Plan?
The scoping consultation runs from 1 September to 9 October 2026. The next stage after that is a consultation on content and evidence in July and August 2027, then the proposed plan in July and August 2028.
When will the new Local Plan be adopted?
The published target is 30 April 2029. Until then the Lambeth Local Plan 2021 is the plan in force.
What is happening to Pop Brixton?
The site at 49 Brixton Station Road, with 6 Canterbury Crescent next door, has conditional planning permission granted on 24 March 2026 for a council-led scheme of 288 homes, workspace and a community enterprise hub.
Where do I find a specific planning application?
Search the address on Lambeth’s Public Access planning register. It carries the full application, consultee responses and the decision.
Related
- Clapham house prices: what the borough’s homes actually sell for, area by area.
- Clapham tube and train times: the transport that shapes where the borough grows.
- Roadworks and travel in Lambeth: what the building work is doing to the roads now.
Sources
- Lambeth Housing Development Pipeline Report 2023/24 for completions, approvals, the affordable pipeline, the Clapham Park and Gasholder Station figures and the 4.21-year land supply.
- Lambeth planning policy monitoring: housing for the 2023 Housing Delivery Test result and the Housing Delivery Test Action Plan 2025.
- New Lambeth Local Plan timetable for every date in the plan-making table.
- Lambeth Council news on the Brixton scheme, the Streatham scheme and the Growth Plan.
- Your Clapham Park for the regeneration totals.
Planning positions change with every committee. Check the Lambeth planning register for the current status of any application before you rely on it.
Have your say
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