Planning permission in Richmond upon Thames
What actually happens to planning applications decided by London Borough of Richmond upon Thames: approval rates, decision times, appeal odds and the development plan they are judged against. Figures cover 8,575 applications decided in the two years to July 2026, from the council's public planning register.
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How long does planning permission take in Richmond upon Thames?
Half of decided applications took 48 days or less from validation to decision. The middle 50% of applications took between 33 and 56 days, and 76.4% were decided inside the 8-week statutory target for minor applications. Complex or contested schemes take longer.
The Richmond upon Thames local plan
The statutory development plan is the London Plan 2021 (the Mayor of London's spatial development strategy for Greater London) together with the Richmond Local Plan 2024-2039, adopted on 7 October 2025, which numbers its policies Policy 1 to Policy 55 and replaced the 2018 Local Plan and the 2013 Twickenham Area Action Plan. The Ham and Petersham Neighbourhood Plan (made January 2019) forms part of the development plan for that area, and adopted policy is supplemented by a suite of Supplementary Planning Documents, including Village Planning Guidance for the borough's villages and new 2026 SPDs on affordable housing, biodiversity, trees and transport.
The Local Plan Review concluded with adoption of the Richmond Local Plan 2024-2039 on 7 October 2025, so there is no emerging borough-wide Local Plan; the only outstanding step is publication of the final formatted version of the adopted plan. Any future review documents or draft SPDs carry weight only as material considerations proportionate to their stage.
What tends to shape decisions here: The borough is heavily constrained: large areas are Metropolitan Green Belt or Metropolitan Open Land (Policy 35), and it has extensive Thames river frontage within the Thames Policy Area, numerous conservation areas and village designations, and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew UNESCO World Heritage Site with its own policy and buffer (Policy 32). Widespread flood risk and designated Tall and Mid-Rise Building Zones further limit where and how development can come forward. Housing delivery has fallen well below target (a Housing Delivery Test result of 60 per cent), so the tilted balance is engaged for housing schemes, though NPPF footnote 7 protective designations frequently provide a clear reason for refusal on the most constrained sites.
Source: decisions published on the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames public planning register, two years to July 2026. Approval rate = approvals divided by approvals plus refusals; withdrawn applications and other outcomes are excluded. We track 30,097 Richmond upon Thames applications in total. Plan facts as of July 2026; always check the council's own pages for the latest position.
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