Bromley's final draft Local Plan is due this summer before a December 2026 submission, as Government maths says the borough needs nearly four times more homes.

The biggest planning story in Bromley this year is not any single tower or estate. It is the new Local Plan, the document that will decide where homes can be built across the borough into the 2040s, and the widening gap between the number Bromley plans for and the number the Government says it needs. A full draft of the new plan, with site allocations, is due for consultation this summer, and the council intends to submit it to the Government by a December 2026 deadline. Here is where the process stands, what the numbers actually are, and the decisions worth knowing about, all from the council’s own documents.

Where the new Local Plan has got to

Bromley’s current Local Plan was adopted in January 2019, and the council is rewriting it. The review has run through a Call for Sites in 2021, an Issues and Options consultation from April to June 2023, and a second Regulation 18 consultation on a “Direction of Travel” document between 25 July and 26 September 2025.

The next stage is the one that matters most to residents. The council says it will publish a Submission Draft with full draft policies and site allocations and consult on it in summer 2026, in order to submit the Local Plan for examination by the Government’s December 2026 deadline (review of the Bromley Local Plan). That summer consultation is the point where you can see exactly which sites are proposed for development near you, and the last formal chance to comment before an independent inspector examines the plan.

The housing numbers, and why they are the story

Three different numbers are in play, and the gaps between them explain almost every planning argument the borough will have for the next few years.

  • What gets built: 996 homes were completed across the three years 2020/21 to 2022/23, an average of about 332 a year (Housing Delivery Test Action Plan).
  • The target the council plans against: the London Plan sets Bromley 774 homes a year (7,740 over ten years), and the council’s position is that this figure, not the Government’s assessed need, is the right requirement while the current London Plan is in force (Bromley housing trajectory).
  • The Government’s assessed need: under the revised standard method, analysis by the planning consultancy Turley puts Bromley’s figure at about 2,906 homes a year, with the indicative figure published in December 2024 at 3,001 (Turley, May 2025). That is nearly four times the current target.
Bar chart of Bromley homes per year: 332 built on average between 2020 and 2023, a current London Plan target of 774, and a Government standard method figure of 2,906
Chart by Bromley Online, from the council's Housing Delivery Test Action Plan, its 2025 housing trajectory, and Turley's May 2025 standard-method tables.

The standard-method number does not bind Bromley directly yet, because London boroughs take their targets from the London Plan. But the London Plan itself is being rewritten: the Mayor’s “Towards a New London Plan” consultation ran in mid 2025, a draft is due to be published in 2026 (GLA), and the Government has told London it needs 880,000 new homes over the next plan’s ten years, with Green Belt release required where needs cannot be met otherwise (Bromley housing trajectory). However the new targets are distributed, the direction for outer boroughs with land, and Bromley has more land than any other London borough, is up.

Bromley has already lost a planning safety net

Underneath the target debate sits a harder-edged fact. In the most recent Housing Delivery Test, Bromley delivered 996 homes against a requirement of 1,709, a score of 58 per cent. Because that is below 75 per cent, the “presumption in favour of sustainable development” now applies in the borough, alongside a required action plan and a 20 per cent buffer on the five-year land supply. The council also acknowledges a housing land supply of just 2.4 years against the five years expected (Housing Delivery Test Action Plan).

What it means for you: when the presumption applies, the planning balance tilts toward approval. Schemes that conflict with older local policies become harder for the council to refuse, and easier for developers to win at appeal. Until a new Local Plan is adopted with a healthy land supply behind it, that tilt is the practical backdrop to every contested application in the borough. It is also the strongest reason the council has to keep its December 2026 submission date.

A recent decision worth knowing: the National Sports Centre

The borough’s Development Control Committee unanimously approved the refurbishment of the National Sports Centre at Crystal Palace Park on 23 July 2026, on an application from the Greater London Authority. The scheme demolishes the existing swimming pool building and the Lodge Tower and Lower buildings, and delivers a new aquatics hall with a 50-metre pool and a dedicated diving pool, an expanded 25-metre learner pool, a refurbished main building and athletics stadium with additional seating, a new accessible walkway and a replacement energy centre. Consultation drew 821 responses, almost evenly split, with 390 in support and 406 objecting (Bromley Council).

It caps a big year for the park. The wider Crystal Palace Park regeneration, the largest since the Palace burned down in 1936, completed in July 2026: the Grade I-listed dinosaurs were restored and removed from Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register, the Italian Terraces were rebuilt, and a new visitor centre opened on 18 July, backed by a £5 million National Lottery Heritage Fund grant (Bromley Council).

How to follow it, and have your say

Day-to-day applications carry on regardless of the Local Plan timetable. Bromley aims to decide 90 per cent of applications under officers’ delegated powers, with the rest going to committee (determination of planning applications). Our guide to Bromley planning applications covers how to search the register, comment inside the 21-day window, and frame an objection the council can legally weigh.

For the Local Plan itself, watch the council’s Local Plan review pages for the summer Submission Draft. When it lands, the test at that stage is whether the plan is sound and legally compliant, and comments go forward to the independent examination expected after the December 2026 submission. We will update this page as the consultation opens and the key sites are published.

Sources

Checked against the council’s planning pages and committee announcements on 7 August 2026. Timetables slip, so confirm dates on the council’s Local Plan pages before relying on them. Our other guides cover Bromley planning applications, Bromley house prices and Bromley council tax bands.