London pillar
Article 4 Directions in London: which boroughs have one
What Article 4 restricts in every London borough, how it affects extensions, lofts and HMOs, and how to plan around it.
What Article 4 restricts in every London borough, how it affects extensions, lofts and HMOs, and how to plan around it.
Waltham Forest by a wide margin, with 807 recorded areas, then Southwark at 480 and Lambeth at 223. Fourteen boroughs have uploaded nothing to the national register at all, which means the data is missing rather than the direction. Compensation may be payable where a direction is made without notice.
| Borough | Article 4 areas in the register |
|---|---|
| Waltham Forest | 807 |
| Southwark | 480 |
| Lambeth | 223 |
| Brent | 162 |
| Hillingdon | 150 |
| Kingston upon Thames | 114 |
| Lewisham | 89 |
| Kensington and Chelsea | 84 |
Source: MHCLG Planning Data Platform, article-4-direction-area register, retrieved 1 September 2026, excluding revoked and superseded entries, Open Government Licence v3.0. The platform’s guidance is explicit that a zero or absent count means the register has not been uploaded, never that no direction exists. The power itself is Article 4 of the General Permitted Development Order 2015, and compensation may be payable under section 108 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990.
All 33 boroughs
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An Article 4 Direction does not ban anything. It removes a permitted development right, so work that would have been automatic now needs a planning application -- and doing it without one is a breach.
| Measure | London | Context |
|---|---|---|
| Enforcement notices, all boroughs | 3,554 | over three years |
| Busiest enforcement borough | Westminster | 419 notices |
| Article 4 areas mapped | 2,315 | across the 14 boroughs that publish them |
Article 4 coverage on the national register is patchy: 14 of 33 boroughs have published mapped areas. Several boroughs with well-known borough-wide directions record nothing at all, so an empty register is never evidence that a property is unaffected.
An Article 4 Direction removes a permitted development right. It does not prohibit the work -- it means the work now needs a planning application, and doing it without one is a breach the council can enforce against.
Sources: MHCLG District Planning Application Statistics (PS1/PS2) and the MHCLG Planning Data Platform registers, covering 2023 Q2 to 2026 Q1. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
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