Complete List of Article 4 Directions in London (2026 Data)

What Is an Article 4 Direction?

An Article 4 direction is a legal order made by a local council that removes specific permitted development rights from a defined area. The name comes from Article 4 of the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) Order 2015.

Unlike conservation areas (which remove a standard set of PD rights automatically), Article 4 directions are targeted. A council can remove any combination of PD rights from any area, for any reason. Common uses include:

• •Preventing HMO conversions - the most common use in London. Councils use Article 4 to stop houses being converted to Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) without planning permission. This is why Waltham Forest and Southwark have such high counts.
• •Protecting residential character - preventing front garden paving, satellite dishes, or changes to windows and doors in specific streets.
• •Removing extension PD rights - some Article 4 directions specifically remove the right to build rear extensions or loft dormers, even outside conservation areas.
• •Preventing office-to-residential conversions - used in employment areas to protect commercial space from Class MA/O conversions.

Article 4 Directions by London Borough: National Dataset Feature Count

The table below shows the number of Article 4 direction features published to planning.data.gov.uk as of March 2026 - not the number of distinct direction orders. The national dataset has well-known data quality issues: councils submitted vector geometry inconsistently, resulting in duplicate polygons, split boundaries, and separate entries for the same direction at different confirmation stages. Counts should be read as a rough proxy for Article 4 coverage intensity, not a precise tally of legal orders. Not all boroughs publish to the national platform - see the note below the table.

Boroughs not listed above maintain their Article 4 data locally rather than publishing to the national platform. From direct council sources: Richmond upon Thames has 131 directions, Bromley has 66, Hackney has 42, and Hammersmith & Fulham has a borough-wide basement direction plus ~45 conservation area directions. Wandsworth, Islington, Hounslow, Ealing, Merton, Kingston, Harrow, Havering, Sutton, Newham, Croydon, Redbridge, Greenwich, Bexley, and the City of London also maintain Article 4 data locally. Contact your local planning authority for current information.

Why Waltham Forest Has 807 Article 4 Directions

Waltham Forest's enormous count is primarily driven by HMO (House in Multiple Occupation) control. The borough introduced area-wide Article 4 directions to prevent the conversion of family homes into shared houses, particularly in E17 (Walthamstow) and E10 (Leyton).

The 807 figure is a dataset feature count, not a count of 807 separate legal orders. The national planning dataset has a known problem: councils uploaded Article 4 data as vector geometry and many did it poorly - submitting duplicate polygons, splitting one direction boundary across multiple features, or uploading both the "direction made" and "direction confirmed" versions as separate entries. Waltham Forest's count is also inflated because granular property-level polygons each count as a separate feature. The actual number of distinct Article 4 orders is likely a fraction of 807.

For extension purposes, the critical question is whether the Article 4 direction covering your property removes householder development rights (Part 1 of the GPDO) or only change of use rights (Part 3). Most HMO-focused Article 4 directions only affect change of use - your extension PD rights remain intact.

How Article 4 Directions Affect Extensions

The impact depends entirely on what the specific Article 4 direction removes. You need to read the actual direction (available from your council) to know which PD rights are affected. Common scenarios:

• 1.HMO-only Article 4 (most common) - removes the right to convert a C3 dwelling to a C4 HMO. No impact on extensions. Your PD rights for rear extensions, loft conversions, etc. are unaffected.
• 2.Residential character Article 4 - may remove rights for front boundary alterations, front garden paving, window replacement, or external painting. May or may not affect rear extensions.
• 3.Full householder Article 4 (rare) - removes Part 1 PD rights entirely. This means planning permission for any extension, loft conversion, or outbuilding. Functionally similar to being in a conservation area.

The key point: an Article 4 direction on your property does not automatically mean you need planning permission for an extension. You need to check exactly which PD rights have been removed. Our AI chat does this automatically when you enter your address.

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