Published: Monday 9 March 2026
This Council was the victim of a serious cyber attack in November 2025. When we were hit by the attack, we isolated our systems to keep them safe. This had a major impact on our planning service. We were unable to process or determine applications or complete local land charge searches. Our access to our website and planning register was suspended to protect our systems. We know that has been incredibly frustrating for anyone trying to use our service and we are sincerely sorry for the inconvenience and delays this has caused.
After advice from cyber security experts, the Met Police and the National Cyber Security Centre, we have confirmed that the threat has been contained and are now taking action to strengthen the security of each of our systems, enabling us to switch them back on, on a phased basis. We have switched our planning applications systems back on from 9 March 2026. Officers will be working through a backlog of around 1,700 planning applications, which will take considerable time to address. Land charge searches are also live, with around 600 cases to work through.
Leader of the Council, Cllr Elizabeth Campbell, said:
“Since we were attacked by cyber criminals, our priority has been protecting our systems and recovering as quickly as possible. We have been working hard with expert partners to test systems and get them back online, ensuring this Council comes back not only safely, but in a better position than before.
“Our planning systems going live is a critical moment in our recovery and while we are very pleased we’re at this stage, we expect there to be bumps in the road. I know it has been incredibly frustrating for residents and developers waiting to move their planning applications and land charge searches forward. Officers won’t be able to reply to individual enquiries, because we believe good customer service right now is about efficiency and speed. We are focusing the resources we have on clearing the backlog of cases as quickly as possible. We’re hiring more staff and will be holding longer planning committees to hear more cases. But I have to stress this is going to take time and we’re grateful for our residents’ patience and cooperation.”
Tackling the backlog
To speed up the process, the Council is redeploying and hiring additional staff, holding longer daytime planning committees and bringing some consultation periods down to the statutory 21 days to review applications more quickly. Our phone lines will be closed so that we can focus our resources on processing applications. Information on specific applications is being updated via the Planning Applications Search on the Council’s website.
Your application
We can’t give individual timescales for applications, but we will do everything we can to work through them as quickly as possible in a fair, efficient and transparent way.
- If your planning application was open to consultation on 19 November 2025, that consultation will restart from the beginning.
- If your application had already been out to consultation and that consultation had been concluded by 19 November 2025 your case will be assessed and decided or may be referred to the relevant Planning Committee.
- If you have submitted an application on or after 19 November 2025 then consultation (where required) will begin, followed by assessment and a decision or committee recommendation.
- Consultations may be shortened to move applications on quickly and reduce delays.
Information on specific applications is being updated via the Planning Applications Search on the Council’s website.
Keeping things moving since November
Since November, we have been doing all we can to keep as much of the system moving as possible. We have been accepting planning applications and validating them. In recent weeks we have reinstated our pre-application advice and have worked to get major applications, where consultation was already complete, to committee. This includes using alternative website arrangements and workarounds to ensure major applications for Earls Court and Lots Road were heard at the Planning Committee in December 2025. We have also been continuing with our enforcement work, visiting sites and investigating reported breaches.
The Planning Applications Committee which was cancelled on 2 December 2025 met on 17 February 2026 to move more applications forward.