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However, depending on certain aspects of your project, your home extension may fall under “Permitted Development”.
This blog post aims to help you understand the difference between Planning Permission and Permitted Development and hopefully guide you towards knowing where your project lies.
Get in touch if you need further project-specific advice. Our architects and designers will be happy to help.
Luckily for you, we can take care of all of this for you via the online Planning Portal.
Sometimes you can carry out your building works without Planning Permission. In this case, you would then build under Permitted Development (PD). We still recommend making a planning application, but instead of a standard planning application, you apply for a Certificate of Lawfulness. Permitted Development allows for minor improvements such as internal alterations, loft conversions or modest extensions. Permitted Development exists to avoid clogging up the planning system. Here’s a list of things you can do without planning permission/under PD:
Outline Permission exists for people who want permission in principle for their proposal. To discover whether the scale and nature of your proposal are feasible avoids the wasted time and the expenses that might be encountered if the proposal has no chance of being approved. Once granted, you need to make a further application for ‘Reserved Matters’. This covers what the Outline Permission does not. Factors such as access, appearance, landscaping, scale and layout must be addressed. (Again, luckily for you, we can take care of this). An outline permission application does not have nearly the amount of detail that a complete planning application or an application for Reserved Matters has. An application for Reserved Matters must be submitted within 3 years of the Outline Permission being granted. Make sure your detailed plans don’t deviate significantly from what you originally planned. Otherwise, you could be faced with an enforcement notice from your local planning authority instructing you to amend things.
Taking the opportunity to be given advice on your proposal is an excellent way to reduce the chance of submitting an invalid application or an application that is likely to fail. A Pre-application is when you submit your proposal less formally to get some advice from the council or even just discuss whether or not they would likely accept it. The terms they suggest would improve the likelihood of an accepted application. It’s good to get your proposal on their desk before an official application as the planning officers become familiar with your project.
Within Greater London, planning applications are dealt with separately by each local borough council. AURA Architecture has developed a wealth of experience in dealing with the planning departments in all South West London boroughs and parts of Surrey too, and know the best approach for each council to get you the results you want. Richmond planning is challenging to achieve. The Richmond Planning Team are highly conservative and protective of the boroughs conservation areas. If you live in Earlsfield, please visit our Earlsfield Architecture and Planning page for information on Earlsfield planning. In Wimbledon, see our Wimbledon Architects page for Wimbledon and Merton planning information.