Location & Block PlansFrom £19
How much do location and block plans cost in London?
A planning location plan in London costs £19, or £39 for the location plan and block plan together, with no VAT charged. Both are prepared on licensed Ordnance Survey mapping as scaled PDFs ready to upload, and both are included free in our planning and Lawful Development Certificate packages.
The short answer: two small fees, or nothing extra with a package
A location plan from us costs £19, and the location plan with a block plan costs £39. They are prepared on licensed mapping, drawn to scale and exported as PDFs sized for upload with a planning application.
If you are commissioning planning drawings or a Lawful Development Certificate from us, both plans are included free, so the standalone price is for people applying with someone else's drawings or on their own.
- Location plan
- £19
- Location and block plan pair
- £39
- Total
- £58
What a location plan has to show
Government guidance says the scale should typically be 1:1250 or 1:2500, and that wherever possible the plan should be scaled to fit onto A4 or A3 paper. The application site should be edged clearly with a red line, and the red line should also cover land required for access to the site from a public highway.
A blue line should be drawn around any other land owned by the applicant, close to or adjoining the application site. Plans must show the direction of north. A linear scale bar is not a statutory requirement, but the guidance says it is useful, particularly for electronic submissions, so we include one.
What a block plan adds
A block plan, also called a site plan, is the close-up that shows the proposal against your boundaries, existing buildings and adjoining streets. It is drawn at a larger scale than the location plan, most often 1:200 or 1:500, and it is the drawing that shows how close a new side wall sits to the fence. Your council's own validation list says what else it wants, and the lists differ between boroughs.
That is why we check the borough's current list before drawing. A block plan with no distances to the boundaries is one of the commonest reasons an officer writes back.
Why plan errors matter
An application needs the right ownership certificate, and the guidance is blunt that without it an application is not valid and cannot be determined. The red and blue lines decide which certificate applies, so a wrong line is not a cosmetic fault.
The Development Management Procedure Order also asks for any other plans, drawings and information necessary to describe the development. A plan returned for correction can delay the start of the council's decision period, so getting it right first time is worth the small fee.
Where it sits in the budget
For most householders the plans arrive as part of a package; see our posts on rear extension drawings and lawful development certificates. If you are applying with someone else's drawings, a drawing review can check them first.
Our location and block plans page shows the service.
Sources
Every figure in this article, where it comes from and a link to the original.
- should typically be 1:1250 or 1:2500: PPG Making an application, para 023: location plan (source wording: "The scale should typically be 1:1250 or 1:2500"). www.gov.uk
- A4 or A3: PPG Making an application, para 023: (source wording: "wherever possible the plan should be scaled to fit onto A4 or A3 size paper"). www.gov.uk
- edged clearly with a red line: PPG Making an application, para 024: (source wording: "The application site should be edged clearly with a red line on the location plan", including "land required for access to the site from a public highway"). www.gov.uk
- A blue line should be drawn around any other land owned by the applicant, close to or adjoining the application site: PPG Making an application, para 024: (source wording: "A blue line should be drawn around any other land owned by the applicant, close to or adjoining the application site"). www.gov.uk
- direction of north: PPG Making an application, para 023: (source wording: "in the case of plans, must show the direction of north"). www.gov.uk
- useful, particularly for electronic submissions: PPG Making an application, para 023: (source wording: "the inclusion of a linear scale bar is also useful, particularly in the case of electronic submissions"). www.gov.uk
- an application is not valid: PPG Making an application, para 025: (source wording: "An application is not valid, and therefore cannot be determined by the local planning authority" unless the relevant ownership certificate has been completed). www.gov.uk
Questions people ask
Are they free with your drawings?
Do I pay VAT on your fee?
Can I use a map screenshot?
Do you draw the red line from the title?
Do you check my borough's list?
Photographs: Matt Bird (Unsplash License); Paul Bryan (Unsplash License).
Location & Block Plans: a fixed fee from £19
Read more on the location & block plans service page, or send your address below and we reply within one working day.
Location & Block Plans
from £19
Every price is the full fixed fee you pay. No VAT is charged. Council application fees are paid to the council separately.
What you get
- A location plan on licensed mapping at 1:1250 or 1:2500
- The site edged in red, with access to the road, and other land edged in blue
- A block plan on request, with the proposal dimensioned to the boundaries
- A north point and a scale bar on each sheet
- Scaled PDFs sized for upload with your application