Lawful Development Certificate in Lambeth from £575
Brixton, Clapham, Streatham and Norwood: Lambeth runs its own online certificate service, says photographs alone will not do, and has 62 conservation areas.
£575 £425 drawings + £150 survey (£575 total), no VAT to add
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The short answer
Lambeth takes lawful development certificate applications through its own online service, and says that for most projects it cannot process an application without drawings; photographs alone are very unlikely to be enough. Each drawing should be to scale, usually 1:100 or 1:50 on A3 or A4, with a scale bar, a unique reference number, a north arrow on plans and a clear label such as “existing roof plan”. Our fee is £425 drawings + £150 survey (£575 total), no VAT to add; the council’s fee is separate.
Permitted development drawings and Lawful Development Certificate
from £575
- Drawings
- £425
- Measured survey
- £150
- Total you pay
- £575
- VAT
- None to add
- A measured survey of the house, so the drawings show your property and not a template
- Existing and proposed plans and elevations to the scale, label and reference rules Lambeth sets
- A check of your address against Lambeth’s 62 conservation areas and nine Article 4 directions
- Advice on whether your project is one of those the online service cannot yet take
- The application prepared and submitted for you, with answers to the officer
£425 drawings + £150 survey (£575 total). A starting fee: we confirm one fixed figure after checking your address. The council’s own fee, where there is one, is paid to the council.
Get my fixed feeHow a Lambeth certificate runs
Rights check
We check the Article 4 directions and conservation areas against your address.
Survey
We measure depths, heights and distances to the boundaries.
Drawings to Lambeth’s rules
Each sheet carries a scale bar, reference number, north arrow and label.
Apply
We submit through Lambeth’s service or the Planning Portal, whichever fits the project.
What Lambeth’s online service asks for
The service tells you to use a desktop or laptop, have your drawings ready as PDF, JPG or PNG, and a card to pay any planning fee. Some projects are not covered yet: large-scale projects, applications about breaching a planning condition, properties without a postcode, applications affecting several properties, some mixed-use changes and office-to-residential changes. Those go through the Planning Portal.
At the moment the person who starts the application cannot give a third party access to complete it or pay the fee, so a drawing set that is complete before you begin matters. For example, a Streatham owner with a hip-to-gable loft plan should have the north arrow, scale bar and reference number on every sheet before logging in.
Article 4, conservation areas and CIL
Lambeth has 62 conservation areas covering about 30% of the borough and nine named conservation-area directions, from Albert Square to Vauxhall, removing permitted development for external alterations. A certificate cannot be granted for work whose right has been removed, so we check your address first.
Lambeth’s information requirements ask for elevations that show neighbours’ windows and doors. Lambeth CIL ran from £500 to £200 a square metre across its zones in the 2025 summary, before indexation, on 100 square metres or more of new floor space, so a typical certificate project is outside it.
Rear extension drawings in Lambeth · Loft conversion drawings in Lambeth
Certificates in Lambeth in numbers
333 of 354
Householder decisions by Lambeth Council between July 2025 and June 2026 (prior approvals left out) that were made inside 8 weeks.
Source: MHCLG live table PS2, district planning application statistics, July 2025 to June 2026 (GOV.UK)
1:100 or 1:50
Usual scale of drawings Lambeth asks for, on A3 or A4, each with a linear scale bar.
Source: Apply for a Lawful Development Certificate (Lambeth Council)
No photos alone
Photographs alone are very unlikely to be enough to assess a certificate application.
Source: Apply for a Lawful Development Certificate (Lambeth Council)
PDF, JPG, PNG
The only file formats Lambeth’s online service accepts for drawings.
Source: Apply for a Lawful Development Certificate (Lambeth Council)
62
Conservation areas in Lambeth, covering about 30% of the borough.
9
Named conservation area directions in Lambeth, from Albert Square to Vauxhall, removing permitted development rights for external alterations.
Adjoining windows
Lambeth’s information requirements ask for elevations showing the windows and doors of neighbouring buildings.
Source: Local Information Requirements 2024 (Lambeth Council)
£500 to £200
Lambeth CIL per square metre for residential across Zones A to D, before indexation.
Questions about certificates in Lambeth
Are photographs enough for a certificate?
No. Lambeth says it cannot process most applications without scaled drawings.
What can Lambeth’s service not take yet?
Large projects, breaches of conditions, properties without a postcode, multi-property applications, some mixed uses and office-to-residential changes.
Can someone else complete my application online?
Not at present. The council says you cannot give access to a third party, so have the drawings ready.
Do I still need building regulations?
Yes. A certificate covers planning law only.
Put it in writing before you build in Lambeth
Send the address and what you plan. We reply with whether it fits permitted development and a fixed fee, from £425 drawings + £150 survey (£575 total).