
The full drawing set for a Brunswick Town application — location and block plans, existing and proposed floor plans, elevations and sections, drawn to Brighton & Hove City Council's validation checklist so the pack is accepted first time, delivered in days and revised free until your decision, with a free approval-odds check first.
Brighton & Hove City Council granted 89% of the householder planning decisions it made in its latest published year — 2 points above the 87% England-wide householder average. The set-piece Regency squares and their bow-fronted seafront terraces are protected against any alteration that breaks the historic building line, which is where a policy-literate drawing pack earns its keep. Its dominant Georgian (1714–1837) and Victorian (1837–1901) housing stock sets the design brief on most streets.
Before permission is required, Class B allows 40m³ of added loft volume on a terrace and 50m³ on a semi or detached house, and Class A allows a 3m single-storey rear extension on a terrace or 4m on a detached house. Brunswick Town carries at least one Article 4 direction, and conservation areas including Brunswick Town, Regency Square and Sackville Gardens remove those rights outright, so we confirm your exact address before a line is drawn. A validated householder application in Brunswick Town is determined against an 8-week statutory target.
Brunswick Square (Busby's monumental twin-terrace centrepiece off the seafront), Brunswick Terrace (the long bow-fronted seafront run either side of the square), Regency Square (the 1820s stucco square facing the West Pier site), Adelaide Crescent (the sweeping later-Regency crescent toward Hove), Sackville Gardens (smaller-scale piecemeal Victorian streets to the north-west) and Waterloo Street (the compact Regency lanes linking the estate inland) — these are the Brunswick Town pockets our drawings cover most. Heritage designations here include Brunswick Town, Regency Square and Sackville Gardens. Brighton & Hove City Council weighs each proposal against Brighton & Hove City Plan (Parts One 2016 and Two 2022) and the relevant SPDs, where the density of Grade I and Grade II* listing means external works are judged against the original architectural composition. Almost all of Brunswick Town's terraces are now flats and maisonettes, which hold no householder permitted-development rights of their own.. On roofs the borough is parapet-hidden flat and leaded roofs on the Regency terraces and shallow slated roofs behind the cornice lines, over Grade I and Grade II* Regency stucco terraces and squares, bow-fronted seafront houses and converted flats and maisonettes.
Whatever you are building, Brighton & Hove City Council decides it from the same core set. A location plan at 1:1250 fixes the site on the map with the red-line boundary; a block plan at 1:500 shows the property in its plot; then existing and proposed floor plans and elevations at 1:100 or 1:50 show the house as it is and as it will be. Larger schemes add a section and, where policy requires, a design and access statement. Miss one and the application is returned invalid before an officer has looked at it.
The drawings are also the argument. Brighton & Hove City Council assesses each proposal against Brighton & Hove City Plan (Parts One 2016 and Two 2022) and the relevant SPDs, and the elevations are where the case is won or lost — ridge and eaves heights, window positions, materials and how the change reads from the street. On Brunswick Town's stock, which runs to Grade I and Grade II* Regency stucco terraces and squares, bow-fronted seafront houses and converted flats and maisonettes, the same scheme is drawn differently to answer the concerns officers raise here. The set-piece Regency squares and their bow-fronted seafront terraces are protected against any alteration that breaks the historic building line, so the pack is built to pre-empt exactly that.
Where the property sits in a conservation area — Brunswick Town, Regency Square and Sackville Gardens among Brunswick Town's — validation is stricter still, often demanding heritage detail and sometimes additional plans. Brunswick Town is covered by the city-wide small-HMO Article 4 direction and by a conservation-area Article 4 that removes permitted-development rights on its Regency terraces, so even minor external changes to the stucco frontages require consent. We confirm the designation before drawing so the pack meets the higher bar first time.

Brighton & Hove City Council validates against a published checklist before it assesses anything. A typical householder application needs each of these, correctly scaled and labelled:
We draw the complete set — location and block plans, existing and proposed plans, elevations and any section — to Brighton & Hove City Council's checklist, then lodge it on the Planning Portal, manage validation and answer case-officer queries so the application is decided on its merits, not bounced on a technicality.
Below is Brighton & Hove City Council's real householder decision record, drawn from official planning statistics and refreshed as new data lands. The council approves most householder applications city-wide, but in Brunswick Town the concentration of high-grade listed Regency stock means heritage impact governs what any scheme can achieve. A complete, correctly scaled pack that answers those concerns on the elevations is validated faster and refused less often than one that leaves them for the officer to raise.
Source: MHCLG planning application statistics (householder decisions, England, 1 April 2025 - 31 March 2026). Compare every borough on our London approval-rate league table.
Tell us about your project and get a fixed, no-obligation quote back within one working day. If you don't need planning permission at all, we'll tell you that too — for free.
Two different things sink an application, and they happen at two different stages. First is validation: a missing block plan, an unscaled elevation, no red line, no north point — Brighton & Hove City Council returns the whole submission and the clock never starts. Getting the pack right at this stage is purely mechanical, and it is where a lot of self-submitted Brunswick Town applications lose weeks. We draw to the checklist so this never happens.
Second is the planning judgement itself, once the pack is valid. The density of Grade I and Grade II* listing means external works are judged against the original architectural composition. Across Brunswick Square, Brunswick Terrace and Regency Square the recurring refusals are about scale, overlooking and how the proposal sits against its neighbours — all of which are settled on the drawings. We draw the scheme to answer them before submission rather than after a refusal.

The application pack is the same discipline whatever the project. A few of the Brunswick Town neighbourhoods and property types we prepare drawings for most often:
Planning drawings for Brunswick Square's Busby's monumental twin-terrace centrepiece off the seafront — scaled, validation-ready and drawn to Brighton & Hove City Council's guidance.
Planning drawings for Brunswick Terrace's the long bow-fronted seafront run either side of the square — scaled, validation-ready and drawn to Brighton & Hove City Council's guidance.
Planning drawings for Regency Square's the 1820s stucco square facing the West Pier site — scaled, validation-ready and drawn to Brighton & Hove City Council's guidance.
Planning drawings for Adelaide Crescent's the sweeping later-Regency crescent toward Hove — scaled, validation-ready and drawn to Brighton & Hove City Council's guidance.
Planning drawings for Sackville Gardens's smaller-scale piecemeal Victorian streets to the north-west — scaled, validation-ready and drawn to Brighton & Hove City Council's guidance.
Planning drawings for Waterloo Street's the compact Regency lanes linking the estate inland — scaled, validation-ready and drawn to Brighton & Hove City Council's guidance.
The route decides what Brighton & Hove City Council needs and how long it takes. This is how the common Brunswick Town routes compare.
| Route | When it applies | Core drawings | Typical decision |
|---|---|---|---|
| Householder application | Extensions and alterations to a single house | Location, block, existing & proposed plans and elevations | About 8 weeks |
| Full application | Flats, new units, changes of use | As householder plus site plan and often a section | 8–13 weeks |
| Lawful development certificate | Confirming a scheme is permitted development | Existing & proposed plans and elevations to prove PD limits | About 8 weeks |
| Prior approval | Larger single-storey rear extensions | Plans and elevations plus neighbour notification | About 6 weeks |
In a conservation area such as Brunswick Town and Regency Square, householder permitted-development rights are often restricted, so a full application and heritage detail may be required.
A fixed process built around how Brighton & Hove City Council validates and decides — most drawing sets are submission-ready within seven days of survey.
Send us your Brunswick Town postcode and what you want to build. We confirm your conservation and Article 4 status, tell you which application route applies, and score your odds against live Brighton & Hove City Council decisions.
We measure the property and plot so the existing plans and elevations are accurate to the millimetre — the base every proposed drawing and every officer judgement is built on.
Chartered designers produce the full validation pack — location and block plans, existing and proposed plans, elevations, any section and a design and access statement — drawn to Brighton & Hove City Council's checklist.
We lodge the application on the Planning Portal, manage validation and case-officer queries, and revise the drawings free until Brighton & Hove City Council issues its decision.
Brighton & Hove City Council validates a householder application against a set list: a location plan at 1:1250 with a red-line boundary, a block plan at 1:500, and existing and proposed floor plans and elevations at 1:100 or 1:50, each with a scale bar and north point. Larger schemes and most conservation-area work also need a design and access statement. If any of these is missing or unscaled the application is returned invalid before it is assessed. This applies to your Brunswick Town address specifically.
Almost always because the drawing pack is incomplete or wrongly scaled — a missing block plan, an elevation with no scale, no red line on the location plan, no north point. Brighton & Hove City Council checks the pack against its validation list before an officer ever assesses the scheme, so these purely technical gaps cost weeks. Drawing to the checklist from the outset is the simplest way to avoid a return. This applies to your Brunswick Town address specifically.
Yes. We prepare the full drawing set, lodge it on the Planning Portal on your behalf, pay the Brighton & Hove City Council fee where you prefer us to, and then manage validation and case-officer questions through to the decision. You get the reference number and updates without dealing with the portal or the council yourself. This applies to your Brunswick Town address specifically.
A householder application is a statutory eight weeks from validation, and a full application eight to thirteen weeks depending on scale. The date that matters is validation, not submission — an invalid pack never starts the clock. Because we draw to Brighton & Hove City Council's checklist the application validates quickly, so the statutory period begins without the delay a returned pack causes. This applies to your Brunswick Town address specifically.
You do not strictly need a planning application, but scaled existing and proposed drawings are still worth having: a lawful development certificate from Brighton & Hove City Council proves the scheme is permitted development, which lenders and buyers increasingly ask for, and your builder needs the drawings to price and build. In a conservation area such as Brunswick Town and Regency Square, permitted-development rights are often removed, so a full application may be needed after all — we confirm which before you commit.
We price each Brunswick Town job individually — the scope of the survey and the size of the drawing set vary from a simple rear extension to a whole-house scheme — and send a fixed, no-obligation quote within one working day. It covers the full validation pack with free revisions until Brighton & Hove City Council decides. The Brighton & Hove City Council application fee is separate and paid to the council. Call 020 7864 7245 to start.
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Same fixed quotes, same fast drawings — wherever your project is.