How much does planning permission cost in London?

The three costs behind one application

The drawings come first. A council will not register an application without a plan that identifies the land, and every plan must be drawn to an identified scale and show north. In practice that means a location plan, a block plan, and existing and proposed floor plans, elevations and sections. Our £825 inc survey covers all of those, the measured visit that produces them, a design statement, and the submission through the council's system.

Second is the council's fee. The amount depends on the type of development, and national regulations fix it in three bands: householder, other non-major development, and major development. A house extension normally falls in the householder band. You pay it with the application, and you pay it whatever the outcome.

Third are the extras. They are not part of every application, which is why they are easy to forget when budgeting. A listed house needs a heritage statement. A tree close to the extension needs a survey. A new opening in a load-bearing wall needs an engineer’s calculations.

How the council fee works, and why we do not print it

Council fees move. The regulations now raise every planning fee on 1 April by the rate of inflation, measured by the Consumer Prices Index the previous September, with a cap of 10%. A figure printed in a blog post is therefore out of date within a year. We quote the fee for your scheme from the GOV.UK table on the day you ask.

Two things stay constant. The fee is identical whether your house is in Hackney or Havering, because the regulations are national. And once paid, most planning fees cannot be refunded, so the sensible order is design first, then apply.

When you do not need to pay for planning permission at all

Photo: Kleon3, BY-SA 4.0

Plenty of London homes can be extended without planning permission, because Parliament has granted general consent for common projects. The detail sits in Schedule 2, Part 1 of the General Permitted Development Order. A single-storey rear extension on a house that is not detached may project up to 3 metres from the original rear wall, or 4 metres on a detached house, and may be up to 4 metres high.

Those limits do not apply everywhere. Flats and maisonettes have no householder rights. Conservation areas, listed buildings and streets covered by an Article 4 direction lose some or all of them. Houses that were extended before you bought them may have used up the allowance already. If your plans sit inside the limits, a certificate or a prior approval costs less than a full application, and sometimes you need nothing.

We tell you which route applies before you spend anything on drawings. If the answer is that your project needs no application, we say so; that is cheaper for you and it keeps the advice honest.

What makes one application cost more than another

Our starting price suits a single house with one clear project. These are the things that lift it, and the council can ask for most of them as a matter of validation:

• A larger scheme: two storeys, a loft and a rear extension together, or a wraparound extension, needs more sheets of drawings.
• A conservation area or listed building, where a heritage or design statement is expected and the drawings must show original features.
• A site with trees, flood risk or a public sewer nearby, each of which brings its own report.
• A house we cannot measure easily, such as one with a tenant who limits access or a very deep plot.

Your choice of builder does not change what we charge. It does change the total project budget, which is why we also offer building regulations drawings and structural calculations as separate fixed fees, so you can see the whole sum before committing.

How long you wait, and what happens if the answer is no

The statutory period for most applications is 8 weeks from the day after the council receives a valid one. Councils can ask you to agree a longer period. London boroughs decided 24,758 householder applications in the year to March 2026, so volume is high and a clean, complete set helps yours move.

If an application is refused, you can appeal for up to 12 weeks from the date on the decision letter. Our fee includes revisions until the council decides, so a request to amend the drawings during the process does not become a second invoice.