Pre-application planning advice service
What is pre-application advice?
Our optional pre-application advice service is for householders, businesses and developers: we offer advice specific to your proposal, explaining changes that might be required and giving your plan the best chance of approval.
We can help you from the first design stages, providing guidance on any changes that are needed, to support your formal planning submission.
Our pre-application advice does not include a design service. We recommend you work with an architect if you need help with the design of a scheme.
Benefits of pre-application advice
Pre-application advice includes:
- explaining how planning policies and other legal requirements affect your project
- identifying potential problems early on and working with you to find solutions or identifying proposals that would not be approved by our planning team
- telling you at an early stage whether you’ll need specialist advice or surveys
- helping you reduce the risk of submitting an invalid application
- helping you save time and money on plans and fees by advising if your proposal is likely to be acceptable
Some categories of pre-application advice include a meeting with your dedicated Planning Officer to discuss your project. At this stage, you may not have an agent - but officers will still be able to discuss your proposal with you. However, for more detailed discussions you may wish to ask an agent to represent you.
We also offer a Fast Track planning service, which can be used with our pre-application advice service. Fast Track and pre-application advice services are optional. You can submit a planning application without using them.
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Applying for our pre-application advice service
When you apply for pre-application advice, we’ll ask you:
- to describe the proposed development and its proposed use
- the category of development you are applying for (Find out more about categories)
- the address of the development
- to make payment in advance for the pre-application advice service (Pre-application advice fees)
You will also need to upload the following documents:
- site location plan
- photographs and sketch drawings showing the site, buildings and trees as existing, together with the schedule of uses
- outline of proposal (on plans scale 1:200)
When we'll respond
We usually acknowledge receipt of your request within 2 working days.
We'll tell you whether we can register your submission or if we need further information. It will also give you the contact details for the planning case officer.
We will try to provide the written response within 4 weeks from registration or from the meeting, if applicable.
After you receive pre-application advice
After we process and issue the formal pre-application response, you will need to review considerations such as sustainability, biodiversity and building control that may affect your application.
Please refer to this document alongside the National and Local Requirements.
The Barnet Construction Supply Chain Project
This has been set up to help developers and main contractors find appropriate and effective local subcontractors and suppliers for their development as well as helping local companies access and win more work in their area.
Developers need to ensure local companies are represented on their tender lists and
More details can be found at Prioritising local procurement in your development (PDF, 86KB)
Confidentiality
We do not automatically publish details of pre-application discussions and treat them as commercially sensitive.
However, under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 we may receive requests for information about enquiries we've received for pre-application advice and of advice given.
Subject to certain exemptions, we are obliged to provide this information, although personal data is protected from disclosure under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Please state in your submission which items you consider are confidential and genuinely commercially sensitive and which are not for disclosure in respect of your application.
Exemptions
Exemptions relate to commercially sensitive and confidential information. You must tell us which information within your application would - if disclosed - prejudice your commercial interests or breach confidentiality.
Please tell us:
- the information you don’t want to be disclosed
- the reason why you think disclosure of the information would prejudice your commercial interests or breach confidentiality
- how long you think this exemption should apply
We will then decide if we believe information falls into these categories, if a Freedom of Information request is subsequently received.
We may also treat as exempt from disclosure information which, if disclosed, may prejudice the effective conduct of public affairs. This is particularly relevant at the start of major applications where a lot of exploratory discussion happens.
If disclosure of this exploratory information is likely to prejudice the process of leading to a proper determination of the planning application, then it may not be disclosable.