The full drawing set for a Ealing application — location and block plans, existing and proposed floor plans, elevations and sections, drawn to Ealing 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.
Ealing Council granted 85% of the householder planning decisions it made in its latest published year — 2 points below the 87% England-wide householder average. Case officers apply the borough's daylight and outlook tests strictly across tight Victorian plot lines, which is where a policy-literate drawing pack earns its keep. Its dominant Victorian (1837–1901), Edwardian (1901–1910) and interwar (1918–1939) housing stock sets the design brief on most streets.
Class A and Class B set the thresholds — a rear dormer to 40m³ on a terrace or 50m³ on a semi or detached, and a single-storey rear extension to 3m on a terrace or 4m on a detached house — beyond which Ealing Council needs a full application. Ealing carries at least one Article 4 direction, and conservation areas including Bedford Park, Ealing Common and Ealing Green remove those rights outright, so we confirm your exact address before a line is drawn. A validated householder application in Ealing is determined against an 8-week statutory target.
Ealing Broadway (red-brick Victorian and Edwardian terraces around the town centre), Hanwell (Edwardian terraces and the Hanwell Village Green conservation area), Northfields (Edwardian streets around Lammas Park), West Ealing (mixed Victorian terraces and converted flats), Greenford (interwar semi-detached estates) and Perivale (1930s Metroland semis with hipped roofs) — these are the Ealing pockets our drawings cover most. Heritage designations here include Bedford Park, Ealing Common, Ealing Green, Hanwell Village Green and Northfields (Lammas Park). Ealing Council weighs each proposal against Ealing Local Plan and the Residential Extensions and Alterations SPD, where roof bulk on paired 1930s houses is a recurring refusal reason. Converted terraces are common across West Ealing and Hanwell, and flats and maisonettes have no householder permitted-development rights.. On roofs the borough is London butterfly / valley roofs on the terraces and hipped roofs on the 1930s semis, over Victorian and Edwardian terraces, interwar semi-detached houses and converted period flats.
Whatever you are building, Ealing 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. Ealing Council assesses each proposal against Ealing Local Plan and the Residential Extensions and Alterations SPD, 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 Ealing's stock, which runs to Victorian and Edwardian terraces, interwar semi-detached houses and converted period flats, the same scheme is drawn differently to answer the concerns officers raise here. Case officers apply the borough's daylight and outlook tests strictly across tight Victorian plot lines, so the pack is built to pre-empt exactly that.
Where the property sits in a conservation area — Bedford Park, Ealing Common, Ealing Green, Hanwell Village Green and Northfields (Lammas Park) among Ealing's — validation is stricter still, often demanding heritage detail and sometimes additional plans. Bedford Park — shared with Hounslow — carries a long-established Article 4 direction, and several other Ealing conservation areas remove permitted-development rights, so PD can never be assumed on those streets. We confirm the designation before drawing so the pack meets the higher bar first time.
Ealing 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 Ealing 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 Ealing Council's real householder decision record, drawn from official planning statistics and refreshed as new data lands. Ealing grants around the London average of householder applications, with roof bulk on paired 1930s houses and neighbour daylight across narrow plots the most common sticking points. 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, rolling year). 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 — Ealing 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 Ealing applications lose weeks. We draw to the checklist so this never happens.
Second is the planning judgement itself, once the pack is valid. Roof bulk on paired 1930s houses is a recurring refusal reason. Across Ealing Broadway, Hanwell and Northfields 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 Ealing neighbourhoods and property types we prepare drawings for most often:
Planning drawings for Ealing Broadway's red-brick Victorian and Edwardian terraces around the town centre — scaled, validation-ready and drawn to Ealing Council's guidance.
Planning drawings for Hanwell's Edwardian terraces and the Hanwell Village Green conservation area — scaled, validation-ready and drawn to Ealing Council's guidance.
Planning drawings for Northfields's Edwardian streets around Lammas Park — scaled, validation-ready and drawn to Ealing Council's guidance.
Planning drawings for West Ealing's mixed Victorian terraces and converted flats — scaled, validation-ready and drawn to Ealing Council's guidance.
Planning drawings for Greenford's interwar semi-detached estates — scaled, validation-ready and drawn to Ealing Council's guidance.
Planning drawings for Perivale's 1930s Metroland semis with hipped roofs — scaled, validation-ready and drawn to Ealing Council's guidance.
The route decides what Ealing Council needs and how long it takes. This is how the common Ealing 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 Bedford Park and Ealing Common, householder permitted-development rights are often restricted, so a full application and heritage detail may be required.
A fixed process built around how Ealing Council validates and decides — most drawing sets are submission-ready within seven days of survey.
Send us your Ealing 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 Ealing 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 Ealing Council's checklist.
We lodge the application on the Planning Portal, manage validation and case-officer queries, and revise the drawings free until Ealing Council issues its decision.
Ealing 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.
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. Ealing 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.
Yes. We prepare the full drawing set, lodge it on the Planning Portal on your behalf, pay the Ealing 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.
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 Ealing Council's checklist the application validates quickly, so the statutory period begins without the delay a returned pack causes.
You do not strictly need a planning application, but scaled existing and proposed drawings are still worth having: a lawful development certificate from Ealing 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 Bedford Park and Ealing Common, permitted-development rights are often removed, so a full application may be needed after all — we confirm which before you commit.
We price each Ealing 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 Ealing Council decides. The Ealing 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.