Before you apply for planning permission, use our pre-application advice service to:
- talk to a planning officer about your planned work
- get expert advice on what you can develop
- spend less time and money preparing your planning application
- avoid having planning permission refused by fixing any issues
- avoid having to make changes to your planning application after you've submitted it
When you use this service, you'll get a case officer. They will:
- identify national, regional and local policies that are relevant to your planned project
- advise you about your design
- coordinate any specialist advice required from other planning officers
- schedule meetings to an agreed timetable, including presentations to our design review panel
- keep to agreed timescales and deadlines for providing written responses
For larger proposals, they will also:
- help draft and agree heads of terms for a section 106 agreement before you submit a planning application
- help organise local community and councillor engagement with your proposal
We provide free pre-application planning advice for renewable energy, heat and retrofit projects. This includes installing solar panels, heat pumps and external insulation. The service is available to:
- homeowners
- ‘not for profit’ community energy organisations
