Pre-application advice requests for London planning schemes
Pre-application advice lets you put a scheme in front of the planning officer before you apply and find out what they will test. We prepare the request, the plans and the questions, send it to the council as your agent and read the reply with you, for a fixed £265. The council's own charge for its advice is separate and paid to the council.
Fixed fee from £265 · all prices
Prefer to talk it through?
What pre-application advice is, and is not
It is a discretionary service. The council is allowed to charge for it under section 93 of the Local Government Act 2003, which lets an authority charge a person for a service it is authorised but not required to provide, if that person has agreed to its provision. The government's planning guidance says councils may charge for providing discretionary services under that section, and that pre-application engagement offers significant potential to improve both the efficiency and effectiveness of the planning application system.
It is not a decision. The guidance says pre-application advice cannot pre-empt the democratic decision making process or a particular outcome, though it could be a material consideration. An officer's friendly letter is useful evidence of how the council sees the scheme, but it does not bind the committee, and we never describe a reply as an approval.
Pre-Application Advice Requests
from £265
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 check of the site's planning history and constraints before anything is sent
- A short description of the proposal and the specific questions you want the officer to answer
- Sketch plans, elevations and a site plan drawn clearly enough for an officer to judge
- The request submitted to the council for you, as your agent
- The council's written reply read through with you, in plain words
- A recommendation on whether to apply, change the scheme, or stop
- Check the site
Planning history, conservation area, listing, flood and tree constraints on the address.
- Frame the questions
What you need answered, in the order that would change the design.
- Draw the proposal
Plans and elevations at a level the officer can respond to.
- Send to the council
We submit the request and the council's own fee is paid to the council.
- Read the reply
We go through the written advice with you and say what to change before applying.
When it is worth paying for
The Framework asks for pre-application engagement on major development, and says that for other types of development it applies in certain circumstances, and may also be required where proposals raise complex planning matters, such as the potential effect on heritage assets. For a plain householder extension a council's own guidance and a clear set of drawings are often enough, and we will tell you if you would be paying for advice you do not need.
It earns its cost where one answer decides the whole project: whether the council will accept a flat conversion, a change of use, a new home in a back garden, or a change to a listed or conservation-area building. A no at that stage costs far less than a refused application.
The Framework's list of what a planning statement covers includes the outcome of pre-application engagement and the extent to which the proposal changed in response.
What the council's own charge covers
A council decides for itself whether to offer the service, what it includes and what it charges, so the figure differs from borough to borough. Because the council's fee is paid to the council and is not ours, we never fold it into our price, and we tell you what your council is charging before you commit.
Our £265 is for preparing the request and handling it for you. If a council changes its service while we are preparing the pack, we tell you straight away.
What we put in the request
A request that asks 'will this be acceptable?' gets a general answer. One that asks 'is a rear dormer of this size acceptable on this elevation, given the neighbouring dormers?' gets a specific one. We write the questions, put the proposal on a site plan and a handful of drawings, and attach the planning history and constraints we found, so the officer is not working from scratch.
The same material then feeds the application if you go ahead, and a planning statement can set out how the scheme responded to the advice. The Framework's list of what a planning statement covers includes the outcome of pre-application engagement and the extent to which the proposal changed in response.
Reading the reply
A reply can be conditional: acceptable in principle, subject to a change of height, setback or materials, or a supporting report. We list each point and what it would cost you in design terms, and say which are firm and which are for discussion. If the answer is a clear no, we say so, and suggest a different route if there is one.
Where the reply is positive, you take it into your drawings and application. Where the officer raises a concern about flood risk, trees or heritage, we show which specialist report would answer it.
Fee and next step
The fixed fee is £265, the total you pay to us, with no survey visit included. The council's fee for its advice is charged separately by the council. If your scheme needs measured drawings, a survey and drawings are priced on our planning permission page.
Send the address and a short description of what you are thinking of building. We check the site, tell you whether pre-application advice looks worthwhile and what your council charges, and you decide before anything is sent.
Sources
Every figure on this page, where it comes from and a link to the original.
| Figure | Source | Link |
|---|---|---|
| significant potential to improve both the efficiency and effectiveness of the planning application system | PPG Before submitting an application, paragraph 001 (source wording: pre-application engagement "offers significant potential to improve both the efficiency and effectiveness of the planning application system") | www.gov.uk |
| section 93 of the Local Government Act 2003 | PPG Before submitting an application, paragraph 004 (source wording: councils "may charge for providing discretionary services under section 93 of the Local Government Act 2003") | www.gov.uk |
| has agreed to its provision | Local Government Act 2003 s93(1) (source wording: a relevant authority may charge a person for providing a service to him if the authority is authorised, but not required, by an enactment to provide it, "and he has agreed to its provision"); s93(3): income from charges "does not exceed the costs of provision" | www.legislation.gov.uk |
| cannot pre-empt the democratic decision making process or a particular outcome | PPG Before submitting an application, paragraph 011 (source wording: pre-application advice "cannot pre-empt the democratic decision making process or a particular outcome"; it "could, however, be a material consideration") | www.gov.uk |
| complex planning matters | NPPF August 2026, policy DM1(2) (source wording: "Pre-application engagement may also be required where proposals raise complex planning matters, such as the potential effect on heritage assets") | www.gov.uk |
| major development | NPPF August 2026, policy DM1(1)(a) (source wording: proposals for major development should "Be informed by early engagement with neighbours and the local community, as well as with the local planning authority") | www.gov.uk |
| outcome of pre-application engagement | NPPF August 2026, policy DM1(1)(b)(ii) (source wording: a planning statement sets out "The outcome of pre-application engagement and the extent to which the proposal has changed in response to this engagement") | www.gov.uk |
The full guide lives on our sister site
We still prepare this for a fixed £265. The detailed guide to it is on fixedfeeplans.co.uk, part of the same practice.