Services / Pre-application advice
Pre-application advice
For larger or sensitive schemes, the council's view before you apply can save months. We prepare the proposal, submit it for pre-application advice, attend the meeting and adjust the design in response.
- FreeInitial consultationA conversation about your project, and a first view of what's possible, before any fee is agreed.
- FixedFee for each stageEvery stage is priced in writing before it starts. No hourly billing.
- 3DSee the design firstYour design is shown in 3D before it's submitted, while changes are still easy.
- FreeResubmissionIf planning is refused, we revise and resubmit at no extra design fee. Conditions
What we do
Pre-application pack
Drawings and a short statement showing the proposal and how it responds to policy.
Council meeting
We attend the meeting or site visit with the planning officer on your behalf.
Response to advice
We review the written advice with you and adjust the design before the full application.
Second submissions
A follow-up pre-application where the first advice asks for significant changes.
Pre-application
What's included
Our fee is priced in your proposal; the council charges its own pre-application fee, which we confirm in your quote.
- Pre-application drawings and statement
- Submission to the council
- Meeting or site visit attended
- Advice reviewed and design adjusted
Before you start
What we need, and what sits outside our fee
- From you: the property address, a few photos, and any existing drawings, planning approvals or surveys you have. We arrange the measured survey with you.
- Not in our fee: council planning and building control fees, and specialist reports a council asks for, such as a tree survey or flood risk assessment, unless your fee proposal lists them.
- Your fee proposal sets out exactly what is included for your project before any work starts.
Timescales
How long it takes
We give you a timetable for our work in your fee proposal. Council and other statutory timings start once an application is validated.
- Council response
- Varies by council; we tell you the current wait
Common questions
Is pre-application advice worth it?
For new homes, conversions, conservation areas and larger extensions, often yes: it shows where the council stands before you commit to a full application. For a straightforward extension it is usually not needed.
Is the advice binding?
No. It is the officer's informal view at the time, but it carries weight and usually shapes the decision.
Other services
- Free planning check
- House extensions
- Loft conversions
- Upward extensions
- Renovations and internal alterations
- Basement conversions
- Planning permission
- Lawful development certificates
- Building regulations drawings
- Building control applications
- Structural calculations
- Structural surveys and letters of comfort
- Flat conversions
- Lease plans and licence to alter
- Change of use
- New builds
- Interior design
- 3D visualisation
- Energy and retrofit
- Energy Performance Certificates (EPC)
- Accessible home adaptations
- Commercial fit-outs and shopfronts
- Design consultations
- Party wall surveys
- Build over agreements and drainage
- Planning reports and statements
- Amendments, conditions and regularisation
- Planning appeals
- Conservation areas and listed buildings
- Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL)
- HMO planning and licensing
- Feasibility and site checks
- Measured surveys
- Building surveys
- Drawing reviews and second opinions
- Location and block plans
- Tender and construction support
- Principal designer (CDM and building regulations)
- Cost management
- Project management
- Contract administration
- Design and build
- Turnkey projects
- Landscape design
Where we work
Pre-application advice across London
Local planning points for the boroughs closest to our Cricklewood studio: Ealing, Harrow, Brent, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Haringey, Enfield, Barnet, Camden, Westminster, Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea. See all 33 boroughs.