How much do planning permission drawings cost in London?

The two bills

Ours is £515 drawings + £150 survey (£665 total). It covers the measured survey of your house, the existing and proposed plans, elevations and sections, the location and block plans, and the forms. The location and block plans are included, which is why we do not quote them separately inside a planning job.

The council’s is £548 for altering or extending one house. It is paid with the application and is not ours, which is why it never appears inside our price.

What “valid” means, and why it is a drawing problem

A set that misses a scale or a north point is returned before anyone reads the design.

An application is only decided once it is valid. The planning guidance lists four things: a completed form, the national information requirements, the correct fee and the council’s local information requirements.

The plans are part of the national requirements. They must be drawn to an identified scale, plans must show north, and a location plan should usually be at 1:1250 or 1:2500 with the application site edged red and any other land you own edged blue. A set that misses any of these is returned before an officer looks at the design.

Why one borough asks for more than another

The fourth item, the local list, is where London boroughs differ. A council may ask for supporting information such as a design statement or heritage assessment, but only if it is on a formally adopted local list published on its website less than two years before the application, and lists must be reviewed at least every two years.

We check your borough’s current list before drawing, so the supporting documents are in the package and not asked for after submission.

There is one more document to get right: the ownership certificate. The guidance describes four versions, A to D, depending on whether you are the sole owner and whether you know the other owners, and an application is not valid until the right one is completed.

How long it takes, and what to expect

For development that is not major, the council has 8 weeks from the day after it receives a valid application, unless a longer period is agreed in writing. In practice English councils decided 145,600 householder applications in the year to June 2026, and 93% within 8 weeks or an agreed time.

Our drawings are ready about 7 days after the survey. After that, we check them independently, submit them for you and answer the council’s questions, with free redraws until approval.