Apply for planning permission

You must read before applying:

Unnecessary delays can be avoided by providing us with all the information that we need to be able to process your application as quickly as possible. These guides can help you get things right first time. See also: 

Community Infrastructure Levy

The Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) is a new fee that local authorities and the Mayor of London can charge on developments to fund infrastructure needed in the local area. CIL is payable on all developments granted full planning permission by the council that involve an increase in net floorspace of over 100m2, or involve the creation of a new residential units. We will be collecting the Mayoral CIL on behalf of the Mayor.

Complete a Community Infrastructure Levy additional information form and submit it with your planning application. This is so we can calculate the amount of CIL accurately. The CIL additional information form is part of our local planning application requirements. Read the CIL Form Guidance Notes

More information about CIL

Pre-commencement conditions

Section 100ZA of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (as amended), states that planning permission for the development of land may not be granted subject to pre-commencement conditions (as defined in section 100ZA(8) of the Act), unless the applicant has provided written agreement to the terms of the conditions.

Pre-commencement conditions will be required if insufficient information is submitted at the application stage. These conditions might cover areas such as:

  • Contamination
  • Air quality
  • Materials
  • Sound proofing
  • Waste
  • Trees and tree production
  • Sustainable drainage
  • Archaeology 

You will be contacted for your agreement to such pre-commencement conditions before a decision is issued. If you do not agree to these conditions and the Council does not have enough information to deal with a particular aspect, it may then refuse the planning application.

Submit your application

Most planning applications can be submitted online at the Planning Portal, and your application may be validated more quickly if received in this way. To avoid delays to your application, always check your planning portal account to confirm that your application has been submitted.

Make sure you have complied with national and local requirements before submitting your application.

Start application

You can also download the application forms, the accompanying form guidance notes and our local planning application requirements checklists for the type of application you are submitting.

Although anyone can submit a planning application, to ensure that the submission is valid and the quality is sufficient to ensure that delays are minimised you should consider using a professional in the field. There are a number of local architects and planning consultants that can be used. We are not able to make recommendations, however to ensure that the professional is suitably qualified you can check the following websites:

What happens after you have applied 

File size limits

Individual files

Do not submit files larger than 5MB when submitting an application by Planning Portal or by CD/DVD. These documents are displayed on our website, and for accessibility reasons we have to restrict the file size.

Total size for all files 

If you use the Planning Portal to submit an application to us, the total size of all your attachments cannot exceed 25MB.

Total size exceeding 25MB 

If you are submitting major applications where the total size of the attachments is more than 25MB, submit the whole application, including the form, to the Council on CD/DVD.

Key planning policy documents

Further policy advice is available in Supplementary Planning Documents.

Contact details

Up to Make a planning application

Updated: 01/09/2022