Wandsworth Council is pressing ahead with plans for a 14-storey tower on protected open space in Roehampton, despite its own Design Review Panel describing the building as a “last resort” and expressing “regret” that a lower-rise alternative was not pursued.
The Lennox Estate tower planning application stacks multiple departures from the council’s own policies. The site sits outside the designated tall building zone, where the Local Plan permits buildings of only four storeys and 12 metres. The proposed tower is more than three times that height at 48.2 metres. The land is also designated protected open space under policies LP53 and LP54, which state that development resulting in loss of such space “will not be supported.”
The council’s Design Review Panel reviewed the scheme three times between March 2024 and October 2025. Their concerns are documented in reports that were circulated to Council Leader Simon Hogg, Planning Applications Committee Chair Tony Belton, and Head of Planning Permissions Nick Calder.
What the Design Review Panel said
The panel’s language grew more pointed as the process continued.
In their first review in March 2024, they noted plainly: “This site lies outside this zone, in an area where buildings up to 4 storeys and 12m high are policy compliant. As such, the proposal for a tower of approximately 18 storeys would depart from the Local Plan height parameters in this location.”
By September 2024, the panel stated: “The Panel is still sceptical and tentative towards the tower element of the scheme.”
They added that “a tower should be the last resort” and that “a tall building will have an adverse effect on heritage assets.”
The panel asked whether the same number of homes could be delivered in “a simpler, more cohesive gentler density scheme of no more than 6 storey blocks.”
In their final review in October 2025, the panel acknowledged “the trade-off between loss of open space, wider townscape impacts and the delivery of new homes.” They expressed “regret that a lower-rise scheme hasn’t been pursued.”
The applicant’s own Design and Access Statement lists “site location outside of tall building zone” as a constraint on the development.
How the council justifies the departures
The Planning Statement argues that housing need creates “exceptional circumstances” justifying the policy breaches. “The urgent need for new affordable homes in the borough and the objective to create greener, safer and better neighbourhoods are demonstrated as exceptional circumstances,” it states.
On the tower height, the statement argues that three existing towers on the eastern side of the estate make the new building “contextual and complementary to the existing local character.” Those towers were built in 1972 under different planning rules, on different land, and were not on designated protected open space.
The 81 affordable homes are presented as the justification. But housing need exists across the borough. If 81 homes can override protected open space and tall building restrictions here, the same argument could apply to any protected site in Wandsworth.
The conflict at the heart of this application
Wandsworth Council is both the applicant (through its Regeneration team) and the decision-maker (through its Planning department). The councillors who received copies of the Design Review Panel’s critical reports will ultimately vote on whether to approve the scheme they were warned about.
The council’s own heritage advisory committee recommended refusing the application earlier this month, citing clear violations of policy.
This is the same site that residents successfully defended from development six times between 1989 and 1994. A Planning Inspector ruled in 1992 that the estate was deficient in accessible open space and that housing need could not override that protection.
Have your say
The public consultation on the Lennox Estate tower planning application officially closed on Monday 19 January 2026 but you can still provide comments.
You can comment via the Wandsworth planning portal using reference 2025/4170.
Because the tower exceeds 30 metres, the Mayor of London must be consulted before any final decision. No date has been set for the Planning Applications Committee to consider the scheme.
The three ward councillors for Roehampton are Cllr Graeme Henderson (Labour, Cabinet Member for Health), Cllr Matthew Tiller (Labour, Deputy Cabinet Member for Housing), and Cllr Jenny Yates (Labour, Cabinet Member for Transport).
