Planning permission in Hackney: what it costs and how the council decides
Hackney Council charges £548 for a householder planning application, and our fixed fee for the survey, drawings, design statement and submission starts at £745. In its latest four quarters of government statistics Hackney decided 415 householder applications and granted 85% of them.
Fixed fee from £545 drawings + £200 survey (£745 total) · all prices
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What do the council and DrawingsDirect each charge for a Hackney house application?
The council's fee for a householder application, the category for the enlargement, improvement or alteration of a single dwellinghouse, is £548 under the current national fee schedule.
Our fixed fee is separate and starts at £745. It covers the measured survey of your home, the existing and proposed drawings, the design statement and the submission itself. We confirm it from your address and brief before any survey is booked.
How often and how fast does Hackney decide householder applications?
Over the latest four quarters of MHCLG statistics, Hackney decided 415 householder applications, prior approvals included, and granted 85% of them. Householder cases were fewer than half of the 1,287 planning decisions the borough made in the same period.
Leaving prior approvals out, 90% of Hackney's householder decisions came within 8 weeks. That is the period the Development Management Procedure Order sets for an application that is not major development. These are past decisions across the whole borough, not a forecast: your application is judged on its own address and its own drawings.
Before any drawing begins we check the address against the 37 conservation-area entries and 71 article 4 direction entries above, then we confirm the fee, arrange the survey and prepare the application for submission to the council.
Why does a Hackney address need checking before anything is drawn?
The national Planning Data Platform lists 37 live conservation-area entries and 71 live article 4 direction entries for Hackney. We say entries because that dataset can hold several records for a single direction.
An article 4 direction removes certain permitted development rights, so work that needs no application on one street can need one on the next. National planning practice guidance also says a Design and Access Statement is required for major development, for some development in conservation areas and World Heritage Sites, and for listed building consent applications. Our fixed fee includes a design statement, so it is part of the work whichever Hackney street you live on.
What does Hackney's appeal record say about refusals?
The Planning Inspectorate's casework database records 216 Hackney householder-development appeals decided as allowed or dismissed, and 49% of them were allowed. Across every type of appeal in the borough the figure is 42%.
An appeal comes after a refusal and takes its own time and cost, so we would rather answer a case officer's likely objections in the drawings and design statement at the start. Those percentages describe appeals the Inspectorate has already decided and say nothing about the outcome of yours.
How do you start a Hackney planning application with us?
Hackney Council planning sets out what the borough expects to see with an application, and the national requirements apply on top.
Send your address, what you want to build and a few photographs through the quote form. Before any drawing begins we check the address against the 37 conservation-area entries and 71 article 4 direction entries above, then we confirm the fee, arrange the survey and prepare the application for submission to the council.
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), with no VAT to add, 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 |
| 415 | Our analysis of MHCLG planning application statistics, table PS2 (district open data table) (released 24 Sep 2026, quarters to 2026 Q2) | www.gov.uk |
| 85% | Our analysis of MHCLG planning application statistics, table PS2 (district open data table) (released 24 Sep 2026, quarters to 2026 Q2) | www.gov.uk |
| 90% | Our analysis of MHCLG planning application statistics, table PS2 (district open data table) (released 24 Sep 2026, quarters to 2026 Q2) | www.gov.uk |
| 216 | Our analysis of Planning Inspectorate Casework Database (released 1 Oct 2026 (Casework Database 2609)) | www.gov.uk |
| 49% | Our analysis of Planning Inspectorate Casework Database (released 1 Oct 2026 (Casework Database 2609)) | www.gov.uk |
| 37 | Our analysis of MHCLG Planning Data Platform conservation-area and article-4-direction datasets (bulk snapshot retrieved 14 Aug 2026) | www.planning.data.gov.uk |
| 1,287 | Our analysis of MHCLG planning application statistics, table PS2 (district open data table) (released 24 Sep 2026, quarters to 2026 Q2) | www.gov.uk |
| 42% | Our analysis of Planning Inspectorate Casework Database (released 1 Oct 2026 (Casework Database 2609)) | www.gov.uk |
| 71 | Our analysis of MHCLG Planning Data Platform conservation-area and article-4-direction datasets (bulk snapshot retrieved 14 Aug 2026) | www.planning.data.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 |
Photographs: Chris Whippet (CC BY-SA 2.0).
