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  6. When you need planning permission

Improvements to the website and search

We’ve made some improvements to our website to make it quicker and easier to find what you need when visiting. 

This is first in a series of improvements to online services, so we'd love to know what you think of these changes and whether they have helped you do what you needed to do today. We’ll use this feedback to continue to improve things in the future.   

Complete a short survey to let us know what you think – it should take no more than five minutes to complete. Thank you for your help. 

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If you need planning advice

Advice on a planning application

Seventy percent of planning applications we receive are invalid because they have been completed incorrectly. The council offers an advice service with experienced Planning Officers to help resolve issues and speed up planning decisions before you submit an application.

There are three levels of service - the duty planning service, formal pre-application service and a bespoke Planning Performance Agreement service. Which level you choose depends on the advice you are looking for and the scale of your proposal.

To help you decide what you need, read about our services.

Duty planning service

We offer an appointment-only Duty Officer Service for informal planning queries. There are two different services available:

General enquiries

We offer appointments providing general, informal procedural planning advice from an experienced officer. During such an appointment the officer can discuss whether your application form has been completed correctly, offer advice on the planning process, check application validation, check whether planning permission or listed building consent is required and more. The cost is £79.20 for a 20-minute telephone appointment, this includes a follow up summary email.

Net zero carbon and sustainability enquiries

If you are a resident or small business and are proposing energy efficiency measures, micro-generation equipment and/or energy reduction measures to your home or building, as detailed in the Islington Permitted Development Guide for Net Zero Works document, you are able to book a 20-minute telephone appointment free of charge, inclusive of a follow up summary email.

Find out more about the service and book an appointment

Formal pre-application service

Our formal pre-application advice service involves a Planning Officer reviewing your plans and providing written advice on the acceptability of your development proposal based on our unique experience and knowledge of Islington. We can also provide site visits for an additional fee. This early engagement enables key issues to be identified up front, avoids abortive planning applications and speeds up the statutory process. This service is applicable to the full range of development types and is priced according to the size of the development.

For further information on this service please visit the formal pre-application page

Bespoke Planning Performance Agreement service

For major development proposals we encourage the use of a Planning Performance Agreement. This service is a project management tool, which involves our experienced Planning Officer working collaboratively with you to help shape a development to optimize the site use and deliver a development that is acceptable to the community. This service can be used at any time in the development process. For more information on this service please visit the Planning Performance Agreement page.

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