New build drawings in London

No permitted development: the application route

Permitted development does not cover building a new house, so the route is a full application, usually with a design and access statement. Conversions are different: splitting a house or turning another building into homes can take another path, and flat conversion drawings explains where.

Scale sets the clock. The legal test for major development is: Major development: 10 or more dwellings, or a site of 0.5 ha or more where the number is unknown. A non-major application has 8 weeks to be decided and a major one 13 weeks unless you agree longer. These are legal periods and not forecasts for any one site.

Before drawing we test the plot against conservation areas, flood zones, trees, listed neighbours and the site's own planning history. A refused scheme next door tells us more than a policy summary.

Fees and levies that are not ours

The council charges its own fee. For up to nine homes it is £610 per dwelling, and for ten to fifty it is £659 per dwelling, under the table in force at the time of writing. We confirm the figure on the day you apply.

Other charges come later. On the community infrastructure levy the rule is: Any new dwelling is liable to CIL regardless of size (unless relief applies). Self-builders have their own relief: Self-build housing built or commissioned by and occupied by P as main residence can claim exemption.

Biodiversity net gain also deserves an early look: From 6 Aug 2026 BNG does not apply to sites of 0.2 ha or less; the self-build exemption ended for applications from 6 Aug 2026. Whether your site falls inside the exemption decides how much ecology work the application needs, so we raise it on the first call.

Standards a new home must meet beyond planning

Planning permission lets you build and the Building Regulations decide how. New dwellings carry the full list, and several items change the drawings. For access, the national rule is M4(1) visitable dwellings is mandatory for new dwellings unless an optional requirement is imposed, and in London the stricter one applies: At least 10% M4(3) wheelchair user dwellings; all others M4(2).

Water use is capped at 125 litres/person/day, or 110 where the optional requirement applies under Approved Document G. For parking, Approved Document S says Associated parking spaces for new dwellings need EV charge points, and for connectivity Gigabit-ready infrastructure and connection (Requirements R1 / RA1-RA2).

Building regulations drawings turn the approved design into construction sheets, coordinated with the engineer's structural calculations and the drainage and services layouts.

Price, checks and revisions

Our new build drawings start at £1,450 with VAT included, published openly. The fixed quote that follows our constraints check depends on the number of homes, the storeys, how difficult the site is and whether you want planning drawings alone or the set through to construction.

If the council asks for changes during the application we redraw at no charge until approval. That commitment covers our fee only, because the decision belongs to the council and we promise nothing about it. What we do commit to is drawings built to local policy and read by someone who did not draw them.

How the job runs from plot to submission

Send the address, a title plan if you have one and a few lines on what you hope to build. We run the constraints check, say which route applies and name the probable sticking points. A fixed quote follows.

The survey comes next, then options. We model two or three massing schemes in Revit and put numbers beside them: floor area per home, garden depth, distance to each boundary. You choose one in writing, which freezes the design.

A second chartered technologist checks each sheet against the validation list and policy, and we submit through the Planning Portal and deal with the case officer. Our planning drawings page covers submission in more detail.

Boroughs differ

Every council applies national rules through its own plan, so an infill house that suits one borough can need redesign in the next. The council pages set out heritage designations and decision statistics that help choose a site. Architectural drawings in Camden shows how heritage controls change the starting point, and the full list is at architectural drawings by area.