Building regulations drawings in Southwark

Article 4 directions across Southwark

The council publishes 480 Article 4 directions, covering 480 mapped areas. It also has 53 conservation areas, and Historic England lists 919 entries in the borough.

Article 4 directions remove permitted development rights, so an ordinary change such as a new window or a front alteration may need a planning application. The Building Regulations are not affected, but the sequence is: planning decides the design, then the technical set follows it.

Because so many streets are covered, we check the address against the council's maps before we quote. A house that looks like it can be extended under permitted development may sit under a direction, and finding that out early saves a rework of the drawings.

Flats, leaseholds and building control in Southwark

Only 21.8 per cent of Southwark households live in a house or bungalow, and 28.9 per cent own their home. Much of the work here is therefore in flats and maisonettes, where a freeholder or managing agent must consent to structural changes.

That consent usually depends on the technical drawings. A freeholder wants to see the structure, the fire protection between flats and the effect on neighbours' ceilings. We produce a clean set that can be sent to a managing agent as it is.

Fire separation needs particular care in a flat alteration. Floors and walls between homes must resist fire for a set period, and any new opening, pipe or beam that passes through them has to be sealed and detailed. We draw each one, so the building control officer can check it from the sheet and the contractor can price it before starting.

Southwark also has an Article 4 direction covering houses in multiple occupation, so turning a house into shared accommodation needs planning permission first.

How Southwark decides, and the building control route

Southwark decided 558 householder applications in its latest published year, granted 94.8 per cent and decided 95.3 per cent on time. Those figures cover all schemes and say nothing about one house, but they show a council that keeps to its timetable.

Building control body must decide a full plans application within 5 weeks, or longer if agreed in writing. We submit full plans for flats and terraces, where an unexpected finding on site is expensive and slow to resolve next to neighbours.

At the end of the job: Notify completion within 5 days of completing the work. Building control then issues a completion certificate that a buyer's solicitor will ask for.

What the Southwark set includes

Expect floor plans, sections, build-ups for walls, floors and roofs, a drainage layout, fire and escape notes and a materials specification. A second chartered technologist checks every sheet, and revisions after a building control query are included. We ask for the planning decision or certificate and any survey you hold.

Southwark conversions often involve old floors and party walls whose make-up is unknown. We note where the existing structure must be opened up and checked, so that the engineer sizes new steelwork from what is really there, not from an assumption.

Beam sizes come from structural calculations in Southwark, the earlier design stage from planning drawings in Southwark, and services layouts from M&E drawings in Southwark.

The wider Southwark service and nearby boroughs

For the whole borough, see architectural drawings in Southwark. Next door, building regulations drawings in Lambeth, in Lewisham and in Tower Hamlets follow each council's own guidance.