Southwark Plan 2022

How the Southwark Plan impacts you

If you live or work in Southwark, then the Southwark Plan will probably impact you in some way. 

This is because the plan includes:

• the regeneration strategy for the borough 
• policies that are used to guide decisions on planning applications 
• key development sites with land use and urban design requirements 
• visions for each of the borough’s neighbourhoods 

If you live or work in the borough and want to do works to your property, then you can use the Southwark Plan to check how we assess planning applications. This will help you understand the types of development we allow to happen, and the types that you cannot do. You can also see the type of changes and development that we have planned for your area.

Southwark Plan planning policy types

The Southwark Plan has six types of planning policies. We use these policies to manage development in the borough, and to assess your planning applications.

Strategic policies

These policies set out our regeneration strategy to work with local people to improve neighbourhoods and create new opportunities for the future. We also use these policies to set the context for our development management policies and to help us make planning decisions.

View the strategic policies section of the Southwark Plan. ^{(PDF, 434kb)} View an interactive list of our strategic policies.

Development management policies

These are the detailed policies which we use to assess planning applications.

View the development management section of the Southwark Plan. ^{(PDF, 1.7mb)}View an interactive list of our development management policies.

View the Southwark Plan validation requirements and relevant planning documents section ^{(PDF, 222kb)} to understand what you need to submit with your planning application for each policy.

Area Visions

These policies provide the strategic vision for the future of Southwark’s distinct places and neighbourhoods. Area Visions identify the character of different places in the borough. They also set out improvements we want to make to public spaces, transport, and infrastructure, and our targets for new homes and jobs. 

View the Area Visions section of the Southwark Plan. ^{(PDF, 1.8mb)}

Site allocations

These are planning policies which apply to key potential development sites of strategic importance. There are 85 site allocations in Southwark. We provide contextual information about each site and explain how these sites should be developed. 

Email planningpolicy@southwark.gov.uk to request a copy of the Site Allocations section of the Southwark Plan.
View site allocations on our interactive Southwark Maps website.

Implementation policies

These policies set out how we will use the Southwark Plan as our primary planning and regeneration strategy. We use the Southwark Plan along with the policies in our wider Development Plan, including our Area Action Plans, the London Plan, and neighbourhood plans.

View the implementation policies section of the Southwark Plan. ^{(PDF, 85kb)}

Planning policy maps

Some planning policies only apply in certain areas, for example, conservation areas. The Planning Policies Map shows the areas were we apply specific planning policies.

View the Planning Policy map on our interactive Southwark Maps website.

Page last updated: 16 April 2024