What is the Local Plan and why should you care?
The draft Local Plan is Greenwich Council’s blueprint for how our borough will grow and change over the next decade and a half — including where homes, jobs and services go, and how neighbourhoods are protected. It will be used to decide planning applications, including whether family homes can be converted into shared housing (HMOs). Consultation ends on 8 February 2026, so now is the chance to have your say.
You can find out more about the Local Plan at our information page here.
What is the Council proposing?
The draft Local Plan introduces a new policy (Policy H7) to manage conversions of family homes into Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs). In summary, the Labour administration is proposing to:
- Allow HMO conversions where the original house is 90 sqm or larger.
- Manage “over-concentration” of HMOs, but only in a small number of wards and using ward-wide thresholds.
- Continue to allow HMO growth in most residential streets across the borough, provided minimum standards are met.
Why this approach won't tackle the loss of family homes in Greenwich
While we support having stronger controls in principle, however, the proposals brought forward by the Labour administration do not go far enough to protect family homes or neighbourhoods:
- The minimum size threshold is too low
A 90 sqm house is still a smaller, typical family home. Setting the bar this low will do little to slow the steady loss of family housing and won't tackle the issue of developers extending properties to convert them. - Over-concentration is measured at the wrong level
Looking at impacts across whole wards ignores what residents actually experience street by street. A single road can be overwhelmed by HMOs even if the wider ward is not. - The policy lacks real bite
Despite promises of “real action”, the draft plan allows the same trends to continue, just with new wording around them.
What do we think should change?
We believe the Local Plan needs to be bolder and more honest about the trade-offs involved:
- Increase the minimum size for HMO conversions to closer to 140 sqm, not 90 sqm.
- Assess over-concentration at a community or street level, not across entire wards.
- Properly protect family housing alongside building more homes elsewhere — especially on brownfield land and through gentle density in town centres.
Protecting family homes and tackling the housing crisis must go hand in hand.
How should residents respond?
The Local Plan is still out for consultation, and your voice matters. We encourage residents to:
- Say clearly that 90 sqm is too low to protect family homes and Greenwich should increase minimum size to 140 sqm.
- Ask the Council to measure HMO impacts at a street or neighbourhood level.
- Support building more homes in the right places, rather than losing family houses by default.
The more consistent this feedback is, the harder it is for the Council to ignore.
You can respond to the consultation telling Greenwich you want stronger protections for family homes here.