London planning services
These are the services the site explains, and the practices it refers. A licence to alter, listed building consent and a planning application are prepared by the architects. Party wall notices and a check before you buy are the chartered surveyors' work. The address check on every page is free, and nothing here is for sale.
Freeholder consent for works to a leasehold flat: what the drawn package has to show, and who prepares it.
Licence to alter in London →Consent for works that affect a listed building's special interest, including internal alterations.
Listed building consent in London →Notices, schedules of condition and awards under the Party Wall etc. Act 1996, before works start.
Party wall surveyor in London →What to establish about planning, conservation areas and Article 4 directions before exchange.
Planning checks before you buy →The two regimes, and why a project can need building regulations when it needs no planning permission.
Planning permission and building regulations →The default London move: kitchen-diner across the back.
Rear extension — rules and costs →Infilling the Victorian alley for a full-width kitchen.
Side return extension — rules and costs →A bedroom and bathroom in the roof — the value workhorse.
Loft conversion — rules and costs →The biggest space gain — and the hardest consent in London.
Basement extension — rules and costs →Office, studio or gym at the end of the garden — often no planning needed.
Garden room — rules and costs →The same services, by postcode district
Area-by-area guidance for a flat refurbishment or licence to alter, including consent routes, local constraints and exact-address checks.
View service areasArea-by-area guidance for internal alterations, including consent routes, local constraints and exact-address checks.
View service areasArea-by-area guidance for a pre-purchase feasibility check, including consent routes, local constraints and exact-address checks.
View service areasArea-by-area guidance for listed or conservation-area works, including consent routes, local constraints and exact-address checks.
View service areasWho to talk to next
This site checks and explains; it sells nothing. When you need the work itself done, it goes to one of two independent practices — which one depends on whether the job is about designing and consenting the scheme, or about the building's condition, your neighbours and the lease.
The architect's door: designing the scheme and getting it consented — drawings, the planning application and the building-regulations package.
- Residential design for extensions, lofts, basements and conversions
- Planning applications, pre-application advice and appeals
- Lawful development certificates
- Building-regulations and technical design drawings
- Conservation-area design and listed building consent applications
The chartered-surveyor door: professional judgement on condition, risk, party wall matters and leasehold process.
- Building surveys, RICS home surveys and defect diagnosis
- Party wall matters and awards
- Technical due diligence before a purchase
- Leasehold and major-works advisory (Section 20)
- Dilapidations and building pathology
Both practices are independent and separately regulated — Hampstead Chartered Surveyors & Building Consultancy is an RICS-regulated firm (Firm Reg. 923064); Hampstead Architecture and Planning are ARB-registered architects. We publish no fees for their work: each quotes directly for the job in front of them. Your enquiry goes to the practice you choose — we never pass your details to builders or other third parties.