Planning House offers a comprehensive range of professional town planning services at affordable prices. We have a straightforward approach with client’s needs at the core of the service.
- Planning Appeals
We aim to avoid planning appeals through negotiating satisfactory planning permissions, however sometimes this is not always possible. Appeals are not just for refused applications but can be for enforcement issues or approved applications with unsatisfactory conditions.Planning House can review your case and discuss the prospect of appeal success with you, we will provide sensible advice on the way forward and can represent you through the entire process.
There are different types of appeals, the Planning Portal provides a useful guide.
- Land Promotion
What do you do when you have land with development potential?… contact Planning House.Planning is a plan led system and some sites do need to go through the local plan process to establish a land allocation status before a planning application should be progressed. We can help landowners, individuals, groups and companies to promote sites through the Local Plan process in order to secure land allocation status.
Planning House can develop a suitable strategy and action plan to best promote your site through the process.
- Development Appraisals
Planning House provides an impartial and honest appraisal service to establish development potential of a site. This includes researching the planning history of a site, scrutinising any previous planning decisions and evaluating the relevant planning policies.Once the appraisal has been undertaken, if there is potential we can provide you with a realistic and clear strategy to achieve the site’s planning potential.
- Planning Enforcement
Planning enforcement is a complex and sometimes confusing area of planning if you have been threatened with enforcement action it is essential that you do not ignore it. Enforcement action is discretionary and early intervention and negotiation can resolve a situation quickly and efficiently.Planning House can advise you on the best strategy should you be faced with an enforcement/planning breach situation.
A planning breach in itself is not illegal (apart from specific cases such as unauthorised works to listed buildings or to protected trees), however failure to act on an enforcement notice can be a criminal offence. Planning House has produced a basic guide to types of Enforcement Notices & Action for information.
- Planning Applications
Planning can be complex and to ensure your proposal has the best chance of success, contact Planning House for an informal and honest discussion regarding the merits of your development proposal.With our personal and professional approach, we can prepare and submit quality planning applications on your behalf as well as monitor the process, provide advice and guidance throughout.
Planning House can produce specialist reports and we work with our professional network to ensure your proposal is best represented.
Planning House have been awarded Smarter Planning Champion status by the Planning Portal. This confirms our commitment to follow best-practice guidelines for the submission of planning applications, saving time, money and carbon for clients and helping local authorities to process applications as quickly and efficiently as possible.
- Prior Approval Applications
Did you know that you can change the use of an agricultural building or barn, commercial buildings, offices or light industrial buildings to residential use without planning permission?… this is subject to specific criteria and has a simplified planning process to be followed known as prior approval process.A prior approval application is looked at differently from a planning application and changing the use of a building in this way can be a quick and less onerous way to add value to a site/property.
Planning House can assess your proposal to see if there is scope and can represent you throughout the process.
- Representation
All clients are individual and understanding your aspirations is essential to ensure we provide the right approach.
Planning House can represent you as landowner, developer, objector or an interested party in all areas of planning. Whether it’s speaking on your behalf at a planning committee, or providing evidence to support your case during a Local Plan review. Whatever your requirements we can tailor our service to ensure your case is best represented. If you are against a development proposal, we can ensure objections are relevant and focused and we will give you a realistic view of how an application may be determined and whether there are legitimate grounds on which to object. - Pre-application services
Whilst Planning House can advise you on likely success of a planning proposal, it can be beneficial to engage in pre-application discussions with a Local Authority to gain an informal view of how a proposal may be received. Some Local Authorities do charge for this service.There are many benefits to seeking pre-application advice as well as potentially saving you money in abortive professional fees including:
- Speeding up decision-making;
- Confirming the information required with an application;
- Identifying problems and issues at an early stage, potentially reducing the risk of wasted applications or refusal, and reducing queries during the application process; and
- Confirmation of the Local Authorities ‘in principle’ view a proposal.
Planning House can assess your proposal and represent you, if necessary, in any pre-application discussions.