Why I Built This Site
Hi, I'm Sam Jones. I built UK Planning Guide after having a frustrating experience trying to work through planning permission for a few projects of my own. What should have felt like a straightforward early-stage check often felt confusing, slow and much harder to navigate than it needed to be.
The Site I Wanted To Find When I Was Stuck
What I ran into
I found it surprisingly difficult to get clear, practical answers at the point where you are just trying to work out the likely route before paying for drawings, applications or specialist advice.
Why this site exists
I built the site to explain planning questions in plain English, show what usually changes the answer locally and make the next sensible check much easier to spot.
What it does not claim
It is not a council, a law firm or a substitute for formal planning confirmation. The aim is to give people a practical, trustworthy starting point rather than pretend every case can be settled by one article.
What I Am Trying To Make Easier
Plain-English Starting Points
The site is meant to help when you know the project you want to do but do not yet know whether the planning route looks simple, borderline or obviously more sensitive.
Earlier Warning Signs
The goal is to show the local tripwires earlier, especially where conservation areas, Article 4, listed buildings, planning history or site-specific details may change the answer.
Better Next Decisions
I want the site to help people avoid wasting time, money and energy by taking the wrong next step too early, whether that means overcommitting to drawings or assuming a project is simpler than it is.
What The Site Helps With, And Where To Be Careful
Start with the real question
Use the project guides when the build type is clear, the rule hubs when one planning issue is the blocker, and the local pages when authority context may change the route.
Use it to narrow the route
The site works best as a practical first pass: a way to understand what usually applies, what may complicate it locally and what you should verify before spending more money.
Know when to stop
If your answer depends on exact measurements, planning history, heritage controls or a high-stakes judgement call, the safer move is formal confirmation or specialist input.
Standards I Want The Site To Hold
- No invented qualifications, case studies, testimonials or review claims.
- No attempt to make a borderline scheme sound more certain than it is.
- No attempt to hide where local authority confirmation or formal help is the safer next step.
How Trust Is Earned Here
Rules vary by location
Planning routes can change by council area, property history, designations and the exact proposal. Use this page as a structured guide to the next check, not as a blanket approval.
What this page is for
To help users get a practical first answer, understand what usually changes that answer, and decide when to keep using guidance versus when to verify the route formally.
What it does not replace
This site does not replace a council decision, a lawful development certificate, pre-application advice, or paid specialist input where the property, design or planning history makes the answer genuinely delicate.
How the guidance is built
Pages are built from the national planning baseline, local authority context where available, and the practical tripwires that tend to catch people out early, such as heritage controls, boundaries, previous additions and use questions.
When to stop relying on broad guidance
Stop relying on broad guidance once the proposal is close to a limit, sits on a sensitive site, or depends on an assumption that would be expensive to get wrong later.
Safest formal next step
Use a lawful development certificate when a scheme appears lawful but certainty matters. Use pre-application advice when local interpretation, design judgement or planning history are doing most of the work.
Official-source check
Where this page shows official sources, use those links near the relevant answer to confirm the latest council or national wording before relying on a borderline route.
Need The Site Method Applied To Your Own Case?
If the broad route is now clear but the live answer still depends on your property, drawings, local sensitivity or planning history, use the personalised guidance route for a more specific informational steer.
Best for
Cases where you understand the broad method already but want it applied to your own drawings, property history or local sensitivity.
What the reply aims to do
The reply aims to turn the site method into a project-specific informational steer, including where the answer still needs a certificate, pre-app advice or other formal confirmation.
What to include
Property type, council area, location, the change you want to make, approximate dimensions, relevant heritage or flat-related details, previous additions and the main concern.
Important: Replies are informational personalised guidance based on the details you provide and publicly available information. They are not formal legal, architectural, surveying or council advice. Site-specific or borderline cases may still need checking with the local authority or a qualified specialist before drawings, applications or contractor spend move ahead.
Your enquiry details are used to respond to your request. Anonymised themes may be used to improve guides, tools, FAQs and site content. Identifiable case details are not published without permission, and sending an enquiry does not sign you up to marketing emails. Privacy notice.
Best Next Pages
Planning Tools
Use the tools to get a quick planning steer before you read deeper guidance.
Open toolsPersonalised planning guidance
Use the structured request form for a practical case-specific steer on the likely route, local tripwires and what to verify next.
See how it worksPlanning FAQ
Browse clear answers to planning process, restriction and verification questions.
Browse FAQMethodology
See how the site builds guidance and what still needs to be verified before you rely on an answer.
Read methodology