Building work in Lambeth: area guide

Lambeth Council is the planning and building control authority for Lambeth, which covers SW9, SW2, SW4, SW8, SW16, SE1, SE11, SE24 and SE27 and takes in Brixton, Clapham, Streatham, Vauxhall and Kennington. This is our area guide to building work in the borough; for whole-house refurbishment go to Home renovation in Lambeth.

Take the 148,600 or so homes the valuation list gives Lambeth: 77% flats, 23% houses, 40% from before 1919, 14% interwar and 46% post-war. VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for all 35 statistical areas in Lambeth. Counts rounded by the VOA.

Planning and building control in Lambeth

What Lambeth Council publishes about building work in the borough, with each point linked to the council page it comes from:

• Lambeth has 62 conservation areas covering approximately 30% of the borough. lambeth.gov.uk
• Lambeth lists all or parts of Albert Square, Hyde Farm, Lansdowne Garden, Leigham Court Estate, Park Hall Road, St Marks, Stockwell Park, Streatham Lodge and Vauxhall conservation areas as having Article 4 Directions on external alterations. lambeth.gov.uk
• Lambeth Council states that Lambeth has over 2,000 statutory listed buildings. lambeth.gov.uk
• The Lambeth Local Plan policy on building alterations and extensions says infill extensions alongside closet extensions or rear returns should generally be single storey on heritage assets. lambeth.gov.uk
• For building regulations approval for work at home in Lambeth you need to complete either a building notice or a full plans application. lambeth.gov.uk
• Lambeth says a building notice is quicker than a full plans application and you are able to commence works 48 hours after the council receives it. lambeth.gov.uk
• Lambeth recommends submitting a full plans application at least five weeks before you plan to commence on site. lambeth.gov.uk
• The Lambeth Local Plan basement development policy says basement accommodation beneath existing residential buildings should not result in more than one storey of basement below ground level. lambeth.gov.uk

With 77% of Lambeth's homes flats, the lease comes first on many jobs. Flats have no householder permitted development, so an extension or most external changes to a flat need planning permission from Lambeth Council as well as the freeholder's consent. The 23% that are houses keep the householder rights within the size limits, and in a conservation area a single-storey rear extension survives unless an Article 4 direction removes it. Taking out a wall or a chimney breast is building regulations work, not planning, unless the building is listed.

Lambeth runs north to south through a string of postcode districts, from the Georgian terraces of Kennington and Vauxhall in SE11, through Brixton and Clapham, out to Streatham and West Norwood. The age range is wide: late-Georgian brick in the north, Victorian and Edwardian family housing in the middle, and a very high proportion of flats throughout, some in converted houses and many in post-war blocks. Each era has its own construction, failure points and consents, so on any Lambeth job we first establish what we are standing in, and that decides which job the work actually is.

Northern end Georgian brick is a temporary works question

Around Kennington and Vauxhall the houses are older and more delicate than they look: soft handmade brick, lime mortar, timber lintels over openings and lath and plaster inside. A new opening in a wall like that differs from one in Edwardian stock, so RSJ installation here needs a considered temporary works arrangement as much as it needs the right beam.

Many of these properties are listed or sit in a conservation area, so consents come first and the design of any structural alteration follows what is approved. Where original joinery, shutters and cornice survive, repair beats replacement almost every time. We appoint the structural engineer, install to their design, and put back finishes in materials that suit the wall rather than fighting it.

Converted flats in Brixton and Streatham need the freeholder

On VOA figures, most Lambeth homes are flats, often a period house divided into two or three. That changes the job. Consent from the freeholder comes before design, the soil stack and rising main are shared, and any change to floor build-up affects the flat below, so a bathroom renovation is planned around both. Part E sound separation and Part B escape provisions most often need attention.

Lambeth Council building control, or a registered building control approver, will inspect notifiable work at the defined stages, and electrical work falls under Part P. We arrange the notifications and visits, agree access and working hours with the other residents, protect the communal stair, and carry waste out rather than leaving an unpermitted skip on the street.

Popular starting points in Lambeth: kitchen renovation in Lambeth, house extensions across Lambeth, builders in London and Staircase Renovation Cost.