Building work in Merton: area guide

Merton Council is the planning and building control authority for Merton, which covers SW19, SW20, CR4 and SM4 and takes in Wimbledon, Mitcham and Morden. This is our area guide to building work in the borough; for whole-house refurbishment go to Home renovation in Merton.

Of the 87,830 homes the valuation list records in Merton, 26% were built before 1919, 37% between the wars and 36% since 1945; 42% are flats and 58% are houses. VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for all 25 statistical areas in Merton. Counts rounded by the VOA.

Planning and building control in Merton

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

• Merton has removed permitted development rights across the whole borough for converting homes (Use Class C3) to small houses in multiple occupation. merton.gov.uk
• Merton's immediate Article 4 Direction for small HMOs in seven wards started on 17 November 2022. merton.gov.uk
• Merton Council states there are currently around 250 statutory listed buildings in Merton. merton.gov.uk
• Merton's Category D householder pre-application advice costs £250, including a 15 minute virtual meeting only. merton.gov.uk
• Merton Council runs its own building control service and describes it as a not-for-profit service focused on safety and compliance. merton.gov.uk
• Merton Council's building control team is part of LABC (Local Authority Building Control), which supports council building control teams in England and Wales. merton.gov.uk
• On a Merton full plans application a decision notice is issued within five weeks or, if agreed, a maximum of two months from the date first payment is received. merton.gov.uk
• Merton Local Plan Policy D12.11 only permits basement and subterranean developments that do not cause harm to the built and natural environment and amenity. merton.gov.uk

58% of Merton's homes are houses, which keep householder permitted development: a single-storey rear extension within the size limits can usually go ahead without an application, in a conservation area too unless an Article 4 direction removes it. The 42% that are flats have no householder permitted development, so their extensions and most external changes need planning permission from Merton Council. Check Merton Council's conservation area and Article 4 lists for the street before anything is drawn. Taking out a wall or a chimney breast is building regulations work, not planning, unless the building is listed.

Merton runs from Wimbledon and Raynes Park in the west to Mitcham in the east, with Morden to the south, covering SW19, SW20, CR4 and SM4. Wimbledon carries the older stock, substantial Victorian villas and period family homes on generous plots, while Morden is overwhelmingly interwar terraced housing from the suburban expansion of the 1920s and 1930s, much of it on planned estates such as St Helier, and Mitcham mixes post-war estates with interwar terraces. The two eras behave differently once walls are opened, so one request can be a different job on each side, and planning differs too.

Victorian villas around Wimbledon and Raynes Park start at the spine wall

The larger houses in SW19 and SW20 are solid-walled, tall and often keep their separate reception rooms. The usual brief joins the ground floor as an open-plan conversion and adds a house extension into the garden. Both at once, with the services renewed, is a home renovation. Daylight into the middle of these deep plans is the first problem.

Merton Council has designated conservation areas including parts of Wimbledon Village and the older centres, and inside them side, two-storey and roof additions need planning permission, so we build only what is approved. An opening through a solid spine wall is RSJ installation: an engineer designs it, and we install the steel and its padstones exactly as specified.

Popular starting points in Merton: kitchen renovation in Merton, house extensions across Merton, builders in London and Listed Building Renovation.