Development Intent
AtlasSuttonOfficersLauren Liu
Case officer · Sutton Planning

Lauren Liu.

Last recorded decision Oct 2024 — no decisions in this record since

A case officer at Sutton with an approval rate of 75% across 1,263 decided planning applications, spanning 26 wards.[1] Decision speed and appeal performance publish when decision notices are ingested.

Planning officer1,263 decisions75% approvalSave
Sutton · ward map
Approval rate — by ward
Lower ~68%
Higher ~90%
ShowingAll years · subscriber →across all years on record — a period re-scopes the headline figures and the trend
At a glanceEach metric links to the investigation behind it
All investigations →
1,263
Applications
2020–24
Approval rate over time — tougher or softer 🔒Dashed line = London average
avg 81%75%202076%202174%202270%202378%2024
Approval-rate trend is subscriber dataSubscribe to see the trend →
What they decide — by application type
How they compareVersus peers
Approval rate75% · 6th of 18
higher is betterdashed = London avg
Decision time · publishes with decision notices
in development
Appeal overturn · publishes with decision notices
in development
How this officer decides — from their own reports1060 officer reports parsed
17%
Approves despite concerns
of approvals record a documented reservation
2%
Negotiated approvals
approvals mentioning revisions/amendments
11%
"On balance" reports
reports using explicit balancing language
62%
Bespoke reasoning
of report text written for the case, not recited
What they write about — vs Sutton's average officer

Topic mentions per 1,000 words of their own report text (boilerplate stripped), indexed against all parsed Sutton reports. Attention, not stance.

Noise & disturbance
1.86× borough avg
Privacy & overlooking
1.65× borough avg
Daylight & sunlight
1.52× borough avg
Outlook & amenity
1.52× borough avg
Materials & detailing
1.15× borough avg

Mark = borough average (1×). Bar capped at 2×.

How they reason — coded from their reports

Liu's caseload is dominated by loft conversions, garage conversions and modest side/rear extensions, and her reports are notably precise on measured dimensions — depth, width, height and setback from the eaves/boundary are stated to the centimetre in almost every design paragraph before a verdict is reached, and she frequently identifies 'the two main neighbouring properties to take into account' by house number at the start of the amenity assessment, rather than discussing neighbours generically. She has the highest refusal share of this volume group (45 of 1060 recorded), and her refusals concentrate on porches/dormers whose materials or bulk are 'out of character with the dwelling', judged against the specific detailing of adjoining properties in the same terrace, rather than a generic design objection.

Observable habits

· states every material dimension (depth, width, eaves height, ridge height, setback) to two decimal places before reaching a design verdict, rather than describing scale only qualitatively

· explicitly names 'the two main neighbouring properties to take into account' by house number at the opening of the amenity/neighbours paragraph, rather than discussing impact on neighbours generically

· on refusals, isolates the SPECIFIC failing detail (e.g. render material, an oversized dormer) rather than rejecting the whole scheme, and will separately confirm the rest of the proposal (parking, trees) is acceptable in the same report

What their reports consistently look for

· the exact measured depth, width, eaves height and setback distance for every extension or dormer element, cited to two decimal places

· the two specific neighbouring properties most affected, identified by house number, before assessing loss of light, outlook or privacy

· whether an existing garage already falls below the Sutton Local Plan's minimum garage dimension standard, which weakens an objection to its loss through conversion

Assigned Lauren Liu on a live case?What they pay attention to, how they reason, and what their reports consistently look for — so you can address it before they raise it.Subscribe to unlock →
In their own words

The rear dormer extension would measure 6.2 metres wide, have a depth of 3 metres and be set back from the eaves by 1.13 metres

DM2020/00001

it is considered the porch is excessively large and the materials, with particular regard to the white render on the walls and glazing to the entrance are out of character with the dwelling

DM2020/00344

Measured from 1060 published Sutton officer reports written by this officer, with recited policy boilerplate stripped before any counting. These describe how this officer works and writes — they are not outcome predictions. Every quote is from a named public report.

Policy playbook — what this officer cites[3]

The policies this officer cites most in their own reports — times cited across 1060 parsed reports. Whether refusals citing each survive appeal isn't traced per policy yet.

28Character and Design
491 times cited
29Protecting Amenity
474 times cited
D12
136 times cited
30Heritage
107 times cited
36Transport Impact
95 times cited
37Parking
94 times cited
D6
60 times cited
9Housing Sizes and Standards
58 times cited
Which policies this officer leans on is subscriber intelligenceSubscribe to unlock →
Decisions by ward

Where this officer's caseload concentrates, 2020–24.[1] Click the map above to focus this page on a ward, or a row to open the ward.

Recent applications
Address
Reference
Type
Outcome
Date
DM2024/01251
Full Application
Approved
2024-11-25
DM2024/01345
Full Application
Approved
2024-11-15
DM2024/01251
Full Application
Approved
2024-11-25
DM2024/01345
Full Application
Approved
2024-11-15
Full application history locked
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Consultants approved most— subscriber data
1. Happy Building Ltd
2. CANOPY PLANNING SERVICES LTD
3. Quantum Architectural Designs
4. Planning Additions
At a glance
OfficerLauren Liu
BoroughSutton
RolePlanning officer
Experience
Applications1,263 (2020–24)
Approval rate75%
London approval avg81%
Who decides here
GovernmentMayor of LondonCouncilCommitteeOfficersDecisionsApplicantsInspectorate
Related investigations
When committees overrule officers like this one →
How often members depart from officer recommendations, and how those overrides fare at appeal.
How much gets decided without a committee →
The delegated share by borough and officer — where the real power over decisions sits.
Sources & method
  1. [1]Applications decided, approval rate, per-year trend and ward breakdown — London Borough of Sutton planning register and published decision notices, 2020–24. · methodology
  2. [2]Appeal overturn and decision-time benchmarks — Planning Inspectorate (PINS) appeal decisions and application date pairs; not yet computed per officer, shown as a dash until they are. · PINS appeals casework
  3. [3]Condition load — mean effective conditions attached to Sutton decision notices (grant/split), parsed from the published notice text; a borough figure, not yet split per case officer.
  4. [4]"How this officer decides", the policy playbook and all quotes — parsed from 1060 published Sutton officer reports written by this officer, recited policy boilerplate stripped before counting; disposition text coded from their own reasoning with every quote machine-verified verbatim. Descriptive of how they work — not outcome predictions.
Methodology is published in full so every number is traceable to its primary source.