Planning drawings in Tower Hamlets

Flats, freeholders and the ownership certificate

Householder permitted development (Sch 2 Part 1) does not apply to flats or buildings containing flats. In practice that means a flat extension, a roof terrace or a change to the elevations is a planning application, drawn in full, with no Lawful Development Certificate shortcut.

The fee depends on what the application covers. One dwelling pays £548. An application covering two or more houses or flats pays £1,083. Both go to the council, separate from our fixed fee.

Ownership needs care here, where 23.1 per cent of households own their home. The rule behind the certificate is this: Owners and agricultural tenants counted 21 days before the date of the application. If you are a leaseholder, the freeholder is an owner who must be served notice, and a planning decision does not replace the freeholder's consent under your lease. We flag this at the quote stage, before any drawing starts.

Freehold houses are simpler. The owner signs the certificate, the neighbours are consulted for at least 21 days, and the application runs on its normal course. Whichever applies, we prepare the certificates and the Planning Portal submission with the drawings, so nothing is left for you to complete after we hand over.

Heritage layers that change the drawings

Tower Hamlets publishes 59 conservation areas and 64 Article 4 directions, and Historic England records 916 listed entries inside the boundary. Where a layer applies, the drawings change: the conservation area boundary goes on the location plan, existing materials are noted on the elevations, and a listed house needs a consent drawn alongside the application.

Trees can also constrain a design. The council publishes 72 tree preservation orders, so we check the address for one before a ground-floor extension is placed.

How Tower Hamlets has decided applications

Across all types the council decided 998 applications in its latest national return and granted 83.6 per cent. For householder cases alone it granted 92.7 per cent over its latest twelve months, and 95.8 per cent were decided inside eight weeks or an agreed extension.

Larger home extension prior approvals are few here: the council granted 3 and refused 4 in that year. These figures describe the borough, not your house, and we use them for planning the timetable only.

What the planning set contains and costs

You receive existing and proposed plans, elevations and sections, a location plan and a block plan. The national guidance sets the scale: Typically 1:1250 or 1:2500, site edged red including access to the highway, other owned land edged blue. The guidance on drawings adds this: Plans and drawings must be drawn to an identified scale and plans must show north.

The price is £745 with VAT included, fixed before you commit. A second chartered technologist checks each sheet against the council's validation list, and if the council asks for changes we redraw at no charge until approval. Where a house extension falls within permitted development, a Lawful Development Certificate in Tower Hamlets may be the lighter route, and prior approval drawings cover the larger rear extension case.

Where a proposal sits close to neighbouring windows, a daylight and sunlight report in Tower Hamlets is sometimes worth commissioning with the application.

Nearby councils and the wider picture

For the borough as a whole, see our architectural drawings in Tower Hamlets page. The national version of this service is on the planning drawings hub, and the neighbouring boroughs of Newham and Hackney read the same national rules through their own local plans.