Southwark Selective Licensing Wards List: Which Areas Need a Licence

Which Southwark Wards Require a Selective Licence

If you let a single-household property in Southwark — one tenant, a couple, or a family — the answer depends entirely on which ward the property sits in. Southwark runs selective licensing across 19 of its 23 electoral wards, split into two phases with different start and end dates.

Designations 1 and 2 (active 1 March 2022 to 1 March 2027):

• Champion Hill
• Faraday
• Goose Green
• Newington
• St Giles

Designations 3 and 4 (active 1 November 2023 to 31 October 2028):

• Camberwell Green
• Chaucer
• Dulwich Hill
• Dulwich Wood
• London Bridge and West Bermondsey
• North Walworth
• Nunhead and Queens Road
• Old Kent Road
• Peckham
• Peckham Rye
• Rotherhithe
• Rye Lane
• South Bermondsey
• Surrey Docks

If your property falls in any of these 19 wards, a selective licence costs £945 (Part A £661.50 at application, Part B £283.50 when the licence is granted).

The Four Exempt Wards

Single-household rentals in these four wards do not need a selective licence:

• Borough and Bankside
• Dulwich Village
• North Bermondsey
• St George's

Standard landlord safety duties still apply — gas certificates, EICRs, deposit protection — but no local property licence is required for a single-household let in these areas.

How to Check Your Property's Ward

Postcodes do not align with council ward boundaries, so a postcode alone is not reliable. Southwark Council publishes an interactive boundary map on its property licensing pages. Enter the full property address to confirm the exact ward, then match it against the lists above.

Properties on border streets sometimes straddle two wards. The council's address lookup returns the official electoral ward for each property, which is what determines whether a selective licence applies.

Scheme Expiry and What Happens Next

The Phase 1 designations (5 wards) expire on 1 March 2027. The Phase 2 designations (14 wards) run until 31 October 2028. Southwark must consult and pass new designations to extend coverage beyond those dates — the licence requirement does not roll over automatically.

Under the 2024 General Approval, councils can now designate selective licensing across up to 100% of their area without Secretary of State sign-off, provided they meet statutory conditions and run a minimum 10-week public consultation. This replaced the old "20/20 rule" that capped coverage at 20% of an area or 20% of private rented stock without central approval.

If you hold a licence that expires before the scheme ends, the licence needs renewing. If the scheme itself expires, any existing licence remains valid until its individual expiry date, but new applications under that designation stop being accepted.

Do You Actually Need a Selective Licence

Selective licensing applies to private rented properties in designated wards that are not covered by mandatory or additional HMO licensing, including single-household lets. If a property is occupied by three or more people from two or more households sharing amenities, it is covered by Southwark's additional or mandatory HMO scheme instead, regardless of ward location.

Two unrelated sharers form two households under Section 258 of the Housing Act 2004. With only two occupants they fall below Southwark's three-person threshold for additional licensing, so a private rental in one of the 19 selective wards needs a selective licence.

For a step-by-step walkthrough of which licence your Southwark property needs, see the full licensing guide.

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