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Brick period houses on Downshire Hill in Hampstead, with sash windows and a front garden wall
Photograph: Images George Rex (CC BY-SA 2.0)

01Planning

Design and access statements for London applications

In some applications the council will not even begin without a design and access statement: a short document explaining the thinking behind the scheme and how people will reach it. We write it from your drawings, in the order an officer reads it. From £265, fixed before we start.

From £265

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Our fee for design and access statement: from £265, no VAT to add. Covered in full, with its own guide and fee, at fixedfeeplans.co.uk.

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    02The fee

    One fixed fee, published

    Design and access statement

    from £265

    The total you pay. No VAT to add.

    Ask for your fixed fee

    What you get

    • A check that your application actually needs one, before you pay
    • A statement of the design principles, with the site and its context described
    • Access covered: how people and vehicles reach the building and move around it
    • Photographs and drawings keyed to the text
    • A PDF ready to upload, with changes made if the officer asks

    A statement is a document of its own and is priced separately from drawings. The fee carries no VAT to add, and the planning application fee is paid to the council.

    03How it runs

    What a statement covers

    What a statement coversThe site, its setting and what is around it; The design principles and why they were chosen; How the scheme responds to the street; Access for people, cars and cycles; How the design changed after consultationiThe site, its setting and what is around itiiThe design principles and why they were choseniiiHow the scheme responds to the streetivAccess for people, cars and cyclesvHow the design changed after consultation
    Headings follow the questions an officer must answer in the report.
    Georgian brick terrace with sash windows, arched fanlight doorways, stone steps and iron railings in London

    Article 9

    Statements are required for major development and for some development in a conservation area or World Heritage Site. Source: legislation.gov.uk

    Photograph: Lorenc Memaga

    04Planning

    When one is required

    A statement is required for major development, and for development in a designated area, meaning a conservation area or a World Heritage Site, where it provides one or more dwellinghouses, or a building with 100 square metres of floor space or more. So a new house in a conservation area needs one; a small rear extension to an existing house there does not.

    Some applications are exempt altogether, including a section 73 application to vary conditions, engineering or mining operations, a material change of use and waste development. We check the rules for your scheme first, and if you do not need one we say so before you spend a penny.

    Seaford House on the corner of Belgrave Square, a stucco mansion with a pillared porch behind iron railings
    A Belgravia mansion: a conservation-area setting where larger schemes need a statement.Photograph: Matt Brown, CC BY 2.0

    05Planning

    Writing for the officer, not the applicant

    The statement is not a sales brochure. It sets out the design thinking, shows how the building fits its context, and explains the access arrangements, including for disabled people. The officer will look for evidence that the scheme grew out of the site, not that it was laid on top.

    We write it from the drawings and a visit, in plain prose, with each claim tied to a sheet. Where the application also needs a heritage statement, the two are written together so they never contradict each other.

    What the statement costs, and the rest of the packDesign and access statement: £265; Heritage statement, if needed: £655; Drawings: £905; Changes the officer asks for: no charge£Design and access statement£265£Heritage statement, if needed£655£Drawings£905£Changes the officer asks forno charge
    Priced and published; council fees are paid to the council.

    06Planning

    Why a thin statement costs time

    A missing statement is a validation failure, which means the clock does not start. A thin one invites a request for more, and a sloppy one gives a neighbour something to object to. A good one is the shortest document in the pack, and the one the officer quotes from in the report.

    If your scheme is a new dwelling, our planning drawings and the statement are written side by side, from one model, so the plan, the elevation and the text always agree.

    Cornwall Terrace on the Outer Circle by Regent's Park, a long cream stucco Regency terrace with columned porticoes
    Cornwall Terrace: a composed street where each new element is read against the whole.Photograph: ell brown, CC BY 2.0

    07The record

    Figures that shape the job

    1. Article 9

      Statements are required for major development and for some development in a conservation area or World Heritage Site.

      Source: Development Management Procedure Order 2015, article 9, checked 25 Oct 2026

    2. 100 m²

      Floor space at or above which a building in a designated area needs a statement, or any new dwelling there.

      Source: Development Management Procedure Order 2015, article 9, checked 25 Oct 2026

    3. Exempt

      Section 73 variations, engineering or mining operations, material changes of use and waste development need none.

      Source: Development Management Procedure Order 2015, article 9(4), checked 25 Oct 2026

    4. 56

      Conservation areas published by Westminster City Council.

      Source: planning.data.gov.uk, conservation areas dataset, checked 7 Oct 2026

    5. 40

      Conservation areas published by Camden Council.

      Source: planning.data.gov.uk, conservation areas dataset, checked 7 Oct 2026

    6. Scale

      Plans and drawings must be drawn to an identified scale, and plans must show north.

      Source: Planning Practice Guidance, Making an application, paragraph 023, checked 15 Oct 2026

    08Questions

    What clients ask before they instruct us

    Does my rear extension need a design and access statement?

    Usually not. An extension to an existing house in a conservation area is below the threshold unless it creates 100 square metres or more. We confirm it for your scheme before you pay.

    How long should a statement be?

    As long as it needs to be to answer the officer's questions, and no longer. For a single house it is a few pages, with photographs and sketches.

    What does the fee include?

    The document, drawn from your plans, with a visit if it helps, and changes if the officer asks. It starts at £265 with no VAT to add.

    Can you write one for drawings that another firm prepared?

    Yes. We write to the sheets as they are and tell you if the drawings make the access or design case harder.

    Does the listed route need one too?

    A listed building application is judged largely on the heritage case. See listed building consent drawings for the full list of documents.

    09Related

    Kensington street lined with brick townhouses and lit streetlamps beneath an orange dusk sky

    Send us the address of your house.

    We look up the conservation area, listing and Article 4 position, then reply with a fixed fee. A message before 3pm is answered the same working day.

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    Design and Access Statement London | From £265