
The full drawing set for a Hillingdon application — location and block plans, existing and proposed floor plans, elevations and sections, drawn to Hillingdon 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.
Hillingdon Council granted 84% of the householder planning decisions it made in its latest published year — 3 points below the 87% England-wide householder average. A large slice of the borough sits in Green Belt to the west, where extensions face the openness test rather than ordinary householder policy, which is where a policy-literate drawing pack earns its keep. Its dominant Edwardian (1901–1910), interwar (1918–1939) and postwar (1945–1970) 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 Hillingdon Council needs a full application. Hillingdon carries at least one Article 4 direction, and conservation areas including Old Uxbridge, Harefield Village and Ickenham Village remove those rights outright, so we confirm your exact address before a line is drawn. A validated householder application in Hillingdon is determined against an 8-week statutory target.
Uxbridge (the town centre with its Old Uxbridge conservation area and Edwardian terraces), Ruislip (Metro-land semis around the Ruislip Village conservation area), Ickenham (a village green surrounded by interwar suburban housing), Harefield (a rural Green Belt village of cottages and detached homes), Northwood (affluent detached and semi-detached houses on leafy plots) and Hayes (mixed interwar and postwar estates near the former industrial belt) — these are the Hillingdon pockets our drawings cover most. Heritage designations here include Old Uxbridge, Harefield Village, Ickenham Village, Ruislip Village and Eastcote. Hillingdon Council weighs each proposal against Hillingdon Local Plan and the HDAS: Residential Extensions SPD, where the design guidance polices the spacing and building line of Metro-land semis so paired houses keep their rhythm. On roofs the borough is hipped roofs on the 1930s semis and gabled roofs on the older village cottages, over interwar Metro-land semi-detached houses, Edwardian terraces around Uxbridge and West Drayton and detached houses and cottages in the rural western villages.
Whatever you are building, Hillingdon 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. Hillingdon Council assesses each proposal against Hillingdon Local Plan and the HDAS: Residential Extensions 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 Hillingdon's stock, which runs to interwar Metro-land semi-detached houses, Edwardian terraces around Uxbridge and West Drayton and detached houses and cottages in the rural western villages, the same scheme is drawn differently to answer the concerns officers raise here. A large slice of the borough sits in Green Belt to the west, where extensions face the openness test rather than ordinary householder policy, so the pack is built to pre-empt exactly that.
Where the property sits in a conservation area — Old Uxbridge, Harefield Village, Ickenham Village, Ruislip Village and Eastcote among Hillingdon's — validation is stricter still, often demanding heritage detail and sometimes additional plans. Ruislip Village and the Harefield and Ickenham conservation areas carry tight controls, and Article 4 directions on some of these older village streets strip out the permitted-development rights suburban owners otherwise assume. We confirm the designation before drawing so the pack meets the higher bar first time.

Hillingdon 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 Hillingdon 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 Hillingdon Council's real householder decision record, drawn from official planning statistics and refreshed as new data lands. Hillingdon grants a fair share of householder applications, with Green Belt openness in the western villages and roof and spacing changes to interwar semis the recurring pinch 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 — Hillingdon 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 Hillingdon applications lose weeks. We draw to the checklist so this never happens.
Second is the planning judgement itself, once the pack is valid. The design guidance polices the spacing and building line of Metro-land semis so paired houses keep their rhythm. Across Uxbridge, Ruislip and Ickenham 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 Hillingdon neighbourhoods and property types we prepare drawings for most often:
Planning drawings for Uxbridge's the town centre with its Old Uxbridge conservation area and Edwardian terraces — scaled, validation-ready and drawn to Hillingdon Council's guidance.
Planning drawings for Ruislip's Metro-land semis around the Ruislip Village conservation area — scaled, validation-ready and drawn to Hillingdon Council's guidance.
Planning drawings for Ickenham's a village green surrounded by interwar suburban housing — scaled, validation-ready and drawn to Hillingdon Council's guidance.
Planning drawings for Harefield's a rural Green Belt village of cottages and detached homes — scaled, validation-ready and drawn to Hillingdon Council's guidance.
Planning drawings for Northwood's affluent detached and semi-detached houses on leafy plots — scaled, validation-ready and drawn to Hillingdon Council's guidance.
Planning drawings for Hayes's mixed interwar and postwar estates near the former industrial belt — scaled, validation-ready and drawn to Hillingdon Council's guidance.
The route decides what Hillingdon Council needs and how long it takes. This is how the common Hillingdon 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 Old Uxbridge and Harefield Village, householder permitted-development rights are often restricted, so a full application and heritage detail may be required.
A fixed process built around how Hillingdon Council validates and decides — most drawing sets are submission-ready within seven days of survey.
Send us your Hillingdon 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 Hillingdon 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 Hillingdon Council's checklist.
We lodge the application on the Planning Portal, manage validation and case-officer queries, and revise the drawings free until Hillingdon Council issues its decision.
Hillingdon 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. Hillingdon 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 Hillingdon 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 Hillingdon 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 Hillingdon 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 Old Uxbridge and Harefield Village, permitted-development rights are often removed, so a full application may be needed after all — we confirm which before you commit.
We price each Hillingdon 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 Hillingdon Council decides. The Hillingdon 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.