Queen of the Suburbs, king of the side return. We prepare planning drawings Ealing Council can approve — Victorian terraces, Edwardian semis and conservation-area streets included — with free revisions until your decision lands.
Ealing earned its 'Queen of the Suburbs' nickname from the Victorian and Edwardian streets that still define it — red-brick terraces and generous semis around Ealing Broadway, Hanwell, West Ealing and Northfields, with interwar estates spreading through Greenford, Perivale and Northolt. Ealing Council's planning service assesses proposals against detailed residential design guidance, and its case officers pay particular attention to how extensions affect the rhythm of period streets and the amenity of neighbours across tight Victorian plot lines.
That makes drawing quality decisive. A side-return extension — the borough's signature project — lives or dies on how the elevations handle the boundary wall, the neighbour's flank window and the roof over the infill. We dimension those relationships explicitly, apply the daylight tests officers use, and annotate materials so nothing is left for the council to guess at. Packs go in complete: existing and proposed plans and elevations at 1:100 or 1:50, location plan at 1:1250 edged red, block plan, and sections where the roof changes.
Ealing also has some of West London's best-known conservation areas, including Bedford Park — shared with Hounslow and protected by an Article 4 direction — and Ealing Common. On those streets, permitted development can't be assumed, and design detail is everything. We check your address before a line is drawn.
Many Ealing projects proceed without planning permission — single-storey rear extensions, most loft conversions and outbuildings can fall under permitted development within national limits. You will usually need a full application to Ealing Council if any of these apply:
Ealing's Victorian terraces gained their kitchens back through side-return infills. We draw the boundary, the party wall line and the neighbour's light on the page — the three things Ealing officers check first.
Below is Ealing Council's real decision record, pulled from official planning statistics and updated as new data lands. Your personal odds depend on how well the application anticipates the borough's known pressure points: neighbour daylight across narrow plots, roof bulk on paired houses and character in conservation areas. Professionally prepared drawings deal with all three before submission — which is why complete, policy-literate packs are decided faster and refused less often than DIY submissions.
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.
In the Victorian and Edwardian core — Northfields, West Ealing, Hanwell, the streets off Ealing Common — the workload is side returns, rear kitchen extensions and rear-dormer lofts. Plot widths are tight, so the recurring planning issues are the neighbour's habitable-room windows, the height of the infill roof against next door's sill, and rooflights versus dormers on the street-facing slope. Our drawings resolve each with dimensions rather than adjectives.
Interwar Ealing — Greenford, Perivale, Northolt — is 1930s semi territory, where hip-to-gable lofts, wraparound extensions and garage conversions dominate and permitted development does more of the work. Here the drawings often support a prior approval application or a lawful development certificate rather than a full application, and precision about the 'original house' baseline is what keeps a certificate application safe.
Ealing also has a deep stock of converted flats and mansion blocks, so we regularly prepare flat conversion layouts, lease plans and licensing floor plans for the borough — all to the same standard as the planning work.
A word on validation: Ealing's checklist is applied firmly, and incomplete packs are returned rather than nursed through. Drawings must state their scale and paper size, location plans must use OS-licensed mapping with the site edged red, and proposed elevations should show neighbouring buildings where the scheme meets a boundary. Every pack we issue meets those requirements on the first submission, so the statutory clock starts immediately — a fortnight saved before the assessment has even begun.
It is also worth planning the whole journey at the outset. Because our planning drawings are built from a measured survey, the building regulations package, structural calculations and any party-wall drawings flow from the same base — meaning what Ealing approves is exactly what your builder prices and building control inspects.
Postcode and project in, constraint report out — conservation areas, Article 4 directions and your approval odds scored against live Ealing decision data.
We measure the property and draw it as it stands, so validation has nothing to query and the 'original house' baseline is nailed down.
Chartered designers draw the scheme to Ealing's residential design guidance — boundaries, daylight tests and materials all shown explicitly.
We submit via the Planning Portal, manage validation and case-officer queries, and revise the drawings free until Ealing issues its decision.
Ealing Council decides householder applications for Ealing, and its recent record and the permitted-development limits that apply here set out below give Ealing Broadway homeowners a realistic starting point before any drawing begins.
| Measure | Figure for Ealing |
|---|---|
| Ealing Council householder approval rate | 85% |
| England-wide householder benchmark | 87% |
| Loft dormer permitted-development limit (Class B) | 40m³ terrace / 50m³ semi or detached |
| Single-storey rear extension depth (Class A) | 3m terrace / 4m detached |
| Dominant housing era | Victorian (1837–1901), Edwardian (1901–1910) and interwar (1918–1939) |
| Statutory decision period | 8 weeks |
| Conservation / Article 4 status | Article 4 direction in force; PD removed in Bedford Park, Ealing Common and Ealing Green |
Ealing runs 2 points below the national average. Approval rate: MHCLG householder planning statistics for Ealing Council; permitted-development limits: GPDO 2015, Schedule 2, Part 1 (Classes A–B).
The statutory target is eight weeks from validation, and most straightforward Ealing householder applications are decided inside it. Conservation-area schemes and those attracting neighbour objections can take longer or be extended by agreement. We keep the application moving by responding to officer queries the day they arrive.
Often not — a single-storey side-return infill can fall within permitted development if it meets the width, height and rear-projection limits. Combined side-and-rear wraparounds usually exceed PD and need a full application. Conservation areas such as Bedford Park change the picture entirely. We confirm your route before drawing.
Bedford Park, shared between Ealing and Hounslow, is one of London's earliest garden suburbs and is protected by a conservation-area designation and a long-standing Article 4 direction. Most external alterations there need planning permission, with joinery, brickwork and roof details closely scrutinised. We prepare fully detailed packs accordingly.
Existing and proposed floor plans and elevations at 1:100 or 1:50, a site location plan at 1:1250 with the site edged red, and a block plan. Roof alterations add a roof plan and section. Conservation-area applications need a design or heritage statement. Our packs match the validation checklist in full.
Yes, but flats and maisonettes have no permitted development rights, so any external alteration — even a rooflight — needs planning permission, and your lease may require freeholder consent too. We prepare the drawings and application, and can produce lease plans if ownership boundaries need clarifying.
We revise the drawings and resubmit at no charge. Ealing refusals typically cite neighbour daylight, roof bulk or conservation-area character — usually resolvable by trimming a projection, lowering a parapet or refining materials. A resubmission within twelve months of refusal normally attracts no further council fee.
Answer five quick questions and get a free planning score for your exact address — instantly. Then, if you want the full picture, unlock the detailed analysis: your council's live approval rates, local precedents, constraints on your street and a step-by-step route to permission.
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