New houses and flats advice

The information below relates to advice for new residential units - new houses and flats. This can be a single new house or large housing/flat development, or the conversion of an existing property into flats etc.

If you are seeking advice on householder works (such as building an extension or loft conversion), or on commercial works (such as an extension or change of use to a shop or restaurant), then please see our other advice services.

Please note we may make pre-application details available once an application for the works has been submitted. 

 

Pre-application enquiry service

Our advice categories are dependent on the scale of the proposed works. This is detailed in full in the table below. It is the responsibility of the enquirer to request the correct category of advice.

All pre-application advice requests for new residential units must be submitted online. You will need to have a Redbridge account to submit online. Please include a site location plan identifying the site/land in question. 

It is recommended to have plans for your proposed development, and to include these with your advice request.

For categories where the meeting is optional please state clearly in your submission if you require this.

Payment can be made online at the time of submission.  If you do not wish to pay on submission then you can submit and pay after - we will contact you following submission with instructions on how to pay using our automated phone line (we aim to contact you within two working days). If you do not pay on submission then please do not attempt to make payment before we have contacted you, as this will likely cause a delay in processing your request.

All quoted fees are inclusive of VAT.

 

Request advice

 

Category	Definition	Service Offer	Advice	Meeting	Fee from 2 January 2025
Single new residential unit development	1 new residential unit (such as 1 new house, or converting an existing house into 2 flats)	An optional meeting with a planning officer and written response within 20 working days of meeting (or receipt of payment if no meeting).	£586	+£390	£645 + £430
Small development	2-4 new residential units	An optional meeting with a planning officer and written response within 20 working days of meeting (or receipt of payment if no meeting).	£1,560	+£390	£1,715 + £430
Medium development	5-9 new residential units	An optional meeting with a planning officer and written response within 20 working days of meeting (or receipt of payment if no meeting).	£2,340	+£546	£2,575 + £600

 

 For the major development categories below, we encourage the use of the Council’s Design Review Panel (for which there is a separate charge).

 

Category	Definition	Service Offer	Advice	Fee from 2 January 2025
Small-scale major development	10-24 new residential units	A meeting with a planning officer and other relevant specialist officers* and written response within 20 working days of meeting.	£5,054 Includes meeting	£5,560 Includes meeting
Medium-scale major development	25-49 new residential units	A meeting with a planning officer and other relevant specialist officers* and written response within 20 working days of meeting.	£7,582 Includes meeting	£8,340 Includes meeting
Large-scale major development	50-100 new residential units	A meeting with a planning officer and other relevant specialist officers* and written response within 20 working days of meeting.	£10,109 Includes meeting	£11,120 Includes meeting
Strategic Development	100+ new residential units	A meeting with a planning officer and other relevant specialist officers* and written response within 20 working days of meeting.	Dependent on scale of development. To discuss the fee ahead of submission please provide proposal details using a contact form.	No change

Once your request is allocated to a planning officer the fee becomes non-refundable.

If your advice request includes new non-residential floorspace (as well as new residential units) then the fee will be a combined fee of the relevant category above as well as the relevant category of our commercial advice services. 

*Please note additional fees may be chargeable to include specific officers/consultees in pre-application discussions. 

 

Additional information

For these developments you should consider a PPA. The main aim of a PPA is to do as much as possible before submitting your planning application, so that the application proposal is of high quality. There are substantial benefits to this process including setting a realistic timetable with key milestones to be met, more efficient use of resources by both the developer and the Planning department, and ensuing engagement is transparent and productive.

If a PPA is entered into, members of the Council will be openly and appropriately engaged with the development while ensuring that their decision making function is not compromised. PPA schemes will be expected to benefit from one or more reviews by the Council’s Design Review Panel.