Planning permission drawings for London homes
To get planning permission you submit an application with drawings: a location plan at the least, plus the plans, elevations and sections that describe the work. DrawingsDirect prepares the drawings and submits the application for a fixed fee starting from £745. The council's own fee, £548 for a householder application, is paid separately.
Fixed fee from £545 drawings + £200 survey (£745 total) · all prices
Prefer to talk it through?
What drawings do you need for planning permission?
National guidance sets a floor and leaves the rest to the council. The floor is a location plan showing the site in relation to its surroundings. Additional plans and drawings are in most cases needed to describe what you propose, and a council can list them in its local requirements. For a house project that usually means existing and proposed floor plans and elevations, with sections where the roof or levels change.
An application must also carry an ownership certificate, and a Design and Access Statement is required for major development, some development in conservation areas and World Heritage Sites, and listed building consent applications. Our guide to design and access statements explains when yours is needed.
Do you need an application at all?
Not every project does. Some work is permitted development and needs no planning permission, and a lawful development certificate is the document that confirms it; see lawful development certificate drawings.
Where permission is needed, the starting point is how to get planning permission in London, step by step. If the work has already been done, retrospective planning permission is a different path with its own guide.
In the four quarters to 2026 Q2 the 33 London councils made 23,967 householder decisions and granted 86% of them.
Neighbours, the clock and the decision
Once an application is validated the council publicises it, by a site notice displayed for not less than 21 days or by notice to adjoining owners or occupiers. The decision period for a non-major application is 8 weeks from the day after the council receives it, and for major development it is 13 weeks. The 8 weeks can be extended by written agreement. How long planning permission takes in London goes through the stages in order.
How London has been deciding, and what happens after a refusal
In the four quarters to 2026 Q2 the 33 London councils made 23,967 householder decisions and granted 86% of them. Our analysis of the Planning Inspectorate's casework database shows that, of the appeals decided against London councils between 2021 and 2026, 33% were allowed. Refusal is not the end: you can appeal up to 12 weeks from the date on the decision letter for a householder application.
Article 4 directions can narrow what is permitted development. By our analysis there are 1,161 live entries across the 18 of London's 33 councils that have any, and because the register is incomplete that is a minimum. All the figures here are records of the past, not forecasts.
What it costs
Our fixed fee for householder planning drawings starts from £745 and covers the survey, the drawings, the design statement and the submission. The council fee of £548, in force from 1 April 2026, is on top. The other services are on the pricing page, and the set we draw is described on planning drawings in London. For the borough view, see planning permission by council. The guidance is published on GOV.UK.
Sources
Every figure on this page, where it comes from and a link to the original.
| Figure | Source | Link |
|---|---|---|
| £745 | DrawingsDirect starting fixed fee for householder planning drawings (survey, drawings, design statement, submission), from the published price list | drawingsdirect.co.uk |
| £548 | Fees for planning applications in England from 1 April 2026 (MHCLG, SI 2012/2920 as annually indexed), category 6(1): householder application for the enlargement, improvement or alteration of a single dwellinghouse (source wording: £548) | assets.publishing.service.gov.uk |
| Design and Access Statement | Planning practice guidance, Making an application, paragraph 030: a Design and Access Statement is required for major development, some development in conservation areas and World Heritage Sites, and listed building consent applications | www.gov.uk |
| 12 weeks | GOV.UK, Appeal a householder planning decision: you can appeal up to 12 weeks from the date on the decision letter (source wording: "you can appeal for up to 12 weeks from the date on the decision letter") | www.gov.uk |
| 21 days | DMPO 2015 art 15(5): an application is publicised by site display for not less than 21 days or by notice to adjoining owners or occupiers (source wording: "for not less than 21 days") | www.legislation.gov.uk |
| 8 weeks | DMPO 2015 art 34(2)(b): decision period for an application that is not major development (source wording: "8 weeks beginning with the day immediately following that on which the application is received") | www.legislation.gov.uk |
| 13 | DMPO 2015 art 34(2)(a): 13 weeks from day after receipt for major development (source wording: 13 weeks) | www.legislation.gov.uk |
| 23,967 | Our analysis of MHCLG planning application statistics, table PS2 (district open data table) (released 24 Sep 2026, quarters to 2026 Q2) | www.gov.uk |
| 86% | Our analysis of MHCLG planning application statistics, table PS2 (district open data table) (released 24 Sep 2026, quarters to 2026 Q2) | www.gov.uk |
| 33% | Our analysis of Planning Inspectorate Casework Database (released 1 Oct 2026 (Casework Database 2609)) | www.gov.uk |
| 1,161 | Our analysis of MHCLG Planning Data Platform conservation-area and article-4-direction datasets (bulk snapshot retrieved 19 Oct 2026) | www.planning.data.gov.uk |
| 2 | Householder appeal: 28-day deadline applies where an enforcement notice was received within the past 2 years (source wording: 2 years) | www.gov.uk |
| 28 | Householder appeal deadline where an enforcement notice was received (before refusal) in the past 2 years (source wording: 28 days) | www.gov.uk |
Questions people ask
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Photographs: Tim Green from Bradford (CC BY 2.0).
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