Discharge of planning conditions for a London planning permission
Planning permission often arrives with a list of conditions: materials to agree, drawings to approve, a construction plan to submit. Some must be cleared before you can start on site. We go through the decision notice, prepare what each condition asks for and send the request to your council, for a fixed £345.
Fixed fee from £345 · all prices
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What a condition is, and why timing matters
A condition is a rule written into your planning permission. Some are about the building (the brick, the window frames, the roof tile). Some are about how you build it (working hours, deliveries, dust). Some are about what you leave behind (landscaping, bin storage, cycle parking). Each has a trigger: before you start, before you occupy, or ongoing.
The ones that bite are the conditions that must be met before development begins. Starting without clearing them is a breach of the condition, and the council can enforce against it. We sort the notice by trigger first, so you know which conditions stand between you and a start date, and which can wait until the build is under way.
Discharge of Planning Conditions
from £345
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 line-by-line reading of every condition on the decision notice
- A plain schedule: what each asks for, when it must be met, who supplies it
- The drawings, details and short statements each condition needs
- The discharge request submitted to the council as your agent
- Replies to the planning officer's questions on the details
- Written confirmation of what is discharged and what is still open
- Sort the conditions
Which must be cleared before work starts, which before occupation, and which run for the life of the building.
- Gather the details
Drawings, material specifications and short reports, written to the wording of each condition.
- Send the request
One submission to the council with the fee, tied to your planning reference.
- Officer's decision
The council has a set period to give notice of its decision on the request.
- Confirm in writing
We check the decision letter against the conditions and tell you if anything is still outstanding.
Why you can be asked to agree a pre-commencement condition
Councils cannot simply impose conditions that must be met before work starts. Planning Practice Guidance says a pre-commencement condition must not be imposed without the written agreement of the applicant, except in the circumstances set out in the Pre-commencement Conditions Regulations 2018. The legal basis is section 100ZA of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990.
If you believe a pre-commencement condition was imposed without your written agreement, tell us on the first call. That is something to raise with the council, not to comply with in silence.
From 1 April 2026 the fee for a request relating to householder development is £89, and in any other case £309.
What the council wants for the usual conditions
Materials conditions want to see a sample or a precise specification for the bricks, tiles, cladding or render, usually with the manufacturer's reference and a photograph or a sample board. Window and door conditions want large-scale joinery sections, not a catalogue page. Landscaping conditions want a plan with species, sizes and planting dates.
A construction management condition wants a short plan: routes for deliveries, working hours, where skips and materials sit, and how dust and noise are controlled on a London street. Drainage and tree protection conditions need a specialist's input. Where a condition needs a report from a surveyor, drainage engineer or arboriculturist, we say so before we start, quote their fee separately and coordinate it with our drawings.
How long the council has
The Development Management Procedure Order sets the clock. Under article 27 the authority must give notice of its decision on an application for approval required by a condition within 8 weeks, beginning with the day after it receives the application, or a longer period you agree with it in writing.
If the council is late, there is a remedy in some cases. Government guidance describes a deemed discharge process, which the applicant has to activate by serving a notice once at least 6 weeks have passed since the application was received. It does not apply to every condition, and a wrongly served notice can cause more trouble than it solves, so ask us before you use it.
What the council charges
A request to discharge conditions carries its own council fee, separate from ours. From 1 April 2026 the fee for a request relating to householder development is £89, and in any other case £309. The fee is paid to the council with the request. If your scheme needed a Biodiversity Gain Plan, that condition is charged at the £309 rate.
Do not confuse the discharge fee with the fee for changing the permission itself. If what you are doing differs from the approved drawings, the request may belong under a different procedure: an amendment to the permission rather than a discharge. We tell you which applies.
What our fixed fee covers
A fixed £345 is the total you pay, with no VAT charged. It covers reading the notice, preparing the details that drawings and a short statement can answer, submitting the request and dealing with the officer. Where a condition needs a specialist report, that report is separate and quoted first.
If we drew your scheme, the details come straight from the drawings, which is where a good discharge starts. If someone else did, send us the decision notice, the approved plans and any correspondence with the council. Our guide to discharging planning conditions in London sets out the process in more depth.
Sources
Every figure on this page, where it comes from and a link to the original.
| Figure | Source | Link |
|---|---|---|
| 8 weeks | Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (England) Order 2015 art 27(2): the authority must give notice of its decision on an application for approval required by a condition (source wording: "within a period of 8 weeks beginning with the day immediately following that on which the application is received") | www.legislation.gov.uk |
| £89 | Statutory fee from 1 April 2026: discharge of conditions, approval of details and/or confirmation that conditions have been complied with, where it relates to householder development | assets.publishing.service.gov.uk |
| £309 | Statutory fee from 1 April 2026: discharge of conditions, in any other case (including a condition relating to the submission of a Biodiversity Gain Plan) | assets.publishing.service.gov.uk |
| written agreement | Planning Practice Guidance, Use of planning conditions, para 002: a pre-commencement condition must not be imposed on the grant of permission (source wording: "without the written agreement of the applicant") | www.gov.uk |
| section 100ZA | Town and Country Planning Act 1990 s.100ZA(5): planning permission may not be granted subject to a pre-commencement condition (source wording: "without the written agreement of the applicant to the terms of the condition") | www.legislation.gov.uk |
| at least 6 weeks | Planning Practice Guidance, Use of planning conditions, para 043: a deemed discharge notice may only be served once (source wording: "at least 6 weeks beginning with the day immediately following that on which the application is received") | www.gov.uk |