11 common planning questions answered

By understanding the basics, and doing your research rather than resorting to guesswork, you can easily avoid the most common planning pitfalls, says planning consultant Simon Rix

- Simon Rix

Watching some of the popular TV shows on housebuilding, you’d think all the drama was in dealing with builders and the weather. In truth, none of that work can start until you get planning permission so the planning application stage is at least as important, and often more interesting than what comes later, but it’s usually less understood. That is probably why I spend my time helping clients make better planning application-related decisions.

If that notorious Handforth Parish Council meeting that went viral last year is anything to go by, a planning applications TV show could be at least as informative and dramatic as any other housebuilding-related programme. But until that gets made, hopefully, this article will inform you by answering some of the key questions I get asked in my job. And it may help you to avoid some of the real-life planning application dramas some people suffer from.

MODERN ADDITION With this Grade II-listed home (above), AR Design Studio engaged with the council and their conservation officers to develop a design that would rejuvenate portions of the historic fabric, while creating a contemporary space more suitable to modern living.

STARK CONTRAST Designed by Amos Goldreich Architecture, this distinctive extension (right), clad in Karma White Stock brick, contrasts with the existing part of this Victorian semidetached house in London.

1 In which cases do you not need to obtain full planning permission?