Planning consultant in the City of London

Why householder statistics barely exist in the Square Mile

In the latest twelve months we hold, the City council decided 1 householder application. That is not a typo. With so few houses, the usual comfort of a borough-wide grant rate disappears, and the single decision tells you nothing about how a case officer would treat yours.

Minor applications give a better picture: 173 decisions, 97.1 per cent granted and 93.1 per cent decided in time. Across every type the council handled 477 decisions, a small caseload next to the larger boroughs. A small caseload means each file is read closely, so a well-documented submission is easy to process and a thin one stands out. We therefore spend our time on the heritage statement and the drawings, the two documents an officer here reads first, and we keep the planning statement short and tied to the policies that apply.

Heritage, archaeology and the weight of the past

53 scheduled monuments intersect the council's boundary, and 86 of the listed entries are Grade I. Below-ground work therefore attracts archaeological questions that a suburban borough rarely asks. A new lift pit or a basement room can need an archaeological desk-based assessment as part of the application.

There are also 5 entries on the Heritage at Risk Register within the boundary, and only 1 Article 4 direction. Householder permitted development rights do not cover flats at all, so for most City homes the listing matters far more than any direction.

If you are unsure what protects your building, our architectural drawings page for the City of London sets out the area's constraints in one place.

What we do for a City flat or small commercial-to-residential job

Typical briefs are a change to windows in a listed block, an internal reconfiguration, a rear terrace or a conversion of a small office floor to a home. For each we agree the route first. Sometimes that is a Lawful Development Certificate in the City of London to confirm that works are lawful, and sometimes it is a full application with a heritage statement. We also list the neighbours who are likely to comment, because in a block the people on the other side of a party wall are usually the first to write to the council.

We then prepare a short planning statement, assemble the validation documents and draw the plans and elevations. An independent chartered technologist checks the package, which is never the person who drew it. Officer amendments are turned round within five working days, and redrawing is free until approval.

Where a project affects neighbours' light, which is common in dense blocks, we advise on a daylight and sunlight report in the City of London. Below-ground works may need a basement impact assessment in the City of London.

Pre-application, fees and timing

A non-major application has a statutory period of 8 weeks, and a major one 13 weeks. The householder fee set nationally is £548. Neither number is a promise about your case, and in a listed setting a pre-application conversation often saves more time than it costs.

Send us the address, the floor and a sentence on what you want to change. We check the listing, any lease restrictions you tell us about and the council's local validation list, then tell you plainly whether you need a consultant, a specialist or only drawings. The service overview is on the planning consultant page. If a lease or a freeholder's consent is also needed, we note that in the same reply so you can start that conversation in parallel.