Insights

That runs across the RIBA stages: feasibility and brief, concept and detailed design, planning, Building Regulations, tendering and administering the contract on site.

Architect is a title protected by law, so check the register first. Have the site address, what you want to achieve and a realistic budget ready before the first conversation.

ARB registration is the legal baseline needed to use the title. RIBA Chartered stands above it as a recognised quality mark. Check both before you appoint anyone.

We quote a fee for a defined scope, agreed in writing before any work begins, on a basis set per job. Fees are staged, so you only ever commit to the next decision point.

A planning application generally goes in at the end of Stage 3, the building regulations application at Stage 4 and construction is Stage 5. An architect can be appointed for any of the stages a project needs.

Each council sets its own charge. For one new home, eight councils checked in October 2026 charged from £332.40 to £960. The advice does not bind the decision, but it is read at committee and at appeal.

Neighbours get 21 days to comment. The council has 8 weeks from validation to decide, or 13 for a major scheme. From April 2026 the fee is £548 to extend a house and £610 a home for schemes under ten.

Those are statutory time limits, counted from the day the application is complete rather than the day you submit it. Extensions of time are routine and the date that matters is the decision notice, not the committee.

Apply with full plans or a building notice, or use a private approver. Councils decide full plans within five weeks unless a longer period is agreed. The approval lapses three years after the application unless work has legally commenced.

Most planning restrictions are on public records and can be checked before buying or drawing anything. Many of the ones written onto a property can be varied or removed by application.

Designation withdraws some permitted development rights, brings demolition and trees under control and places a statutory duty on the council. On an unlisted building it says nothing at all about the inside.

Householder rights attach to a house that already exists and a replacement is a new one. What decides most cases is size against the original building and what could lawfully be built on the plot without asking anyone.

Both limits are measured above ground level and from the higher side where the ground differs. A listed building removes the right to put up a wall or fence without permission, whatever the height.

It is the main route for a redundant barn. Prior approval is not automatic: the building has to be structurally sound, its agricultural use documented, and the works must stay within what Class Q allows.

The route depends on openness, the site's planning history and what already stands there. Replacement dwellings are the most reliable Green Belt path and one we have taken through to consent.

Paragraph 84 became HO11 when the Framework was rewritten on 17 August 2026, with the truly outstanding design test carried over. It sets the bar at exceptional design quality, tested through design review. We design and pursue these and say early whether a site can carry the argument.

The new home should suit the street where visible, keep safe access, light, privacy and garden space and meet the footprint test or its exception. Outside a settlement, limited infilling can still qualify.

Extensions, extra storeys and some changes of use to homes are covered. Many classes need prior approval, and a condition or an Article 4 direction can remove the rights altogether.

A certificate protects what it describes from enforcement. For building works in England the immunity period became ten years on 25 April 2024, so dates and evidence decide the application.

Since September 2020 shops, offices, cafes, gyms, clinics and nurseries have all been in one class, so moving between them needs nothing. Uses outside the classes have no such freedom and need a full application every time.

Pubs, takeaways and large HMOs belong to no use class. A change within one class is not development. Moving between classes usually needs permission unless a national right covers it.

It is separate from planning permission and often runs alongside it. Listing covers the interior, anything attached and separate structures standing before July 1948. Doing the work without consent is a criminal offence.

Where express consent is needed, a council may judge it on two things only: amenity and public safety. It cannot condition what the sign says. Displaying one without consent is a criminal offence rather than a breach.

A non-material amendment handles the small stuff. Section 73 varies a condition and creates a new permission with its own clock. Anything that changes the description of development needs a fresh application.

A council has eight weeks to decide a discharge application and a fee is payable per request. Where a condition cannot be met as drafted, the route is to vary it rather than ignore it.

Sometimes a revised application is the faster route. We read the decision and give a straight view on which way to go. The record includes schemes won at appeal.

Answering it takes a look at the local plan position and at the site itself. We give you that view before anyone spends money on it.

A site can look developable and still carry a constraint that removes most of its value. Those checks are quick, set against what they save.

A refusal on principle needs a different fix from a refusal on details. Knowing which one you are holding is the first question worth answering.

Inside a settlement, development should be approved unless harm substantially outweighs benefits. Outside, only listed kinds qualify. A housing shortfall counts only for sites physically well related to a settlement, and for grey belt.

An outline permission does less than people assume: parameter plans bind you and conditions on the outline can constrain the reserved matters. Two clocks then run, three years to apply and two from approval to begin.

The count that survives is almost always smaller than the one that fits on the drawing. Testing what erodes it before the massing is fixed is what protects the number you took to the land deal.

The nationally described space standard sets minimum floor areas, bedroom sizes, storage and ceiling heights for new homes in England. Permitted development homes applied for since 6 April 2021 must meet it.

Contamination, services crossing the site, levels and the cost of clearing what stands are what decide whether a consented brownfield scheme is deliverable. They are usually found after the consent rather than before it.

Councils want marketing evidence over a set period and an independent viability appraisal. The tests come from the local plan and the council's own validation checklist.

A pub is sui generis, so every change of use needs an application. An asset of community value listing does less than owners fear, but councils expect real marketing evidence before they accept a pub is finished.

A site in zone 2 or 3 needs its own flood risk assessment, a sequential test and sometimes an exception test on top. Drainage is settled later by condition, which is the half that delays a start.

The first roost assessment can be done any month of the year. The emergence surveys that follow it run May to August and Natural England normally expects two, so a missed window can cost a season.

It is secured and maintained for at least 30 years under the Environment Act 2021. We factor it into feasibility at the start, so a scheme is priced for it rather than caught out by it.

A section 106 binds the land, so it binds whoever builds. The permission usually issues only once the deed is signed, which is why heads of terms are best agreed before committee.

Self-build homes, annexes and larger extensions can be exempt if the claim is decided before work starts. With the Community Infrastructure Levy the order of the forms matters as much as the rate.