Commercial advice

The information below relates to advice for commercial and non-residential address. This include shops, restaurants and offices, as well as HMOs and care homes.

If you are seeking advice on householder works (such as building an extension or loft conversion), or the creation of a new residential unit (such as building a new house or converting a house into flats) then please see our other advice services.

Please note we may make pre-application details available once an application for the works has been submitted. 

Please note our fees increased on 2 January 2024.

 

Pre-application enquiry service

Our advice categories are dependent on the scale of the proposed works. This is detailed in full in the table below. It is the responsibility of the enquirer to request the correct category of advice.

All pre-application advice requests for commercial advice must be submitted online. You will need to have a Redbridge account to submit online.

It is recommended to have plans for your proposed development, and to include these with your advice request.

For categories where the meeting is optional please state clearly in your submission if you require this.

Payment can be made online at time of submission.  If you do not wish to pay on submission then you can submit and pay after - we will contact you following submission with instructions on how to pay using our automated phone line (we aim to contact you within two working days). If you do not pay on submission then please do not attempt to make payment before we have contacted you as this will likely cause a delay in processing your request.

All quoted fees are inclusive of VAT.

 

Request advice

Category	Definition	Service Offer	Advice	Meeting
Minor commercial development	Commercial development (including changes of use and HMOs) where gross external floor space is up to 99m2. Shopfront alterations and plant/machinery installation. Advertisement consent on a single site.	An optional meeting with a planning officer and written response within 20 working days of meeting (or receipt of payment if no meeting).	£390	+£196
Small development	Commercial development (including changes of use and HMOs) where gross external floor space is between 100m2-499m2	An optional meeting with a planning officer and written response within 20 working days of meeting (or receipt of payment if no meeting).	£1,560	+£390
Medium development	Commercial development (including changes of use and HMOs) where gross external floor space is between 500m2-999m2	An optional meeting with a planning officer and written response within 20 working days of meeting (or receipt of payment if no meeting).	£2,340	+£546

 

For the major development categories below, we encourage the use of the Council’s Design Review Panel (for which there is a separate charge).

 

Category	Definition	Service Offer	Advice
Small-scale major development	Commercial development (including changes of use and HMOs) where gross external floor space is between 1,000m2-2,499m2	A meeting with a planning officer and other relevant specialist officers* and written response within 20 working days of meeting.	£5,054 Includes meeting
Medium-scale major development	Commercial development (including changes of use and HMOs) where gross external floor space is between 2,500m2-4,999m2	A meeting with a planning officer and other relevant specialist officers* and written response within 20 working days of meeting.	£7,582 Includes meeting
Large-scale major development	Commercial development (including changes of use) where gross external floor space is between 5,000m2-9,999m2	A meeting with a planning officer and other relevant specialist officers* and written response within 20 working days of meeting.	£10,109 Includes meeting
Strategic Development	Commercial development (including changes of use) where gross external floor space is 10,000m2+	A meeting with a planning officer and other relevant specialist officers* and written response within 20 working days of meeting.	Dependent on scale of development. To discuss the fee ahead of submission please provide proposal details using a contact form.

Once your request is allocated to a planning officer the fee becomes non-refundable.

If your advice request includes new new residential units (as well as new non-residential floorspace) then the fee will be a combined fee of the relevant category above as well as the relevant category of our new residential unit advice services.

*Please note additional fees may be chargeable to include specific officers/consultees in pre-application discussions. 

 

Additional information

For these developments you should consider a PPA. The main aim of a PPA is to do as much as possible before submitting your planning application, so that the application proposal is of high quality. There are substantial benefits to this process including setting a realistic timetable with key milestones to be met, more efficient use of resources by both the developer and the Planning department, and ensuing engagement is transparent and productive.

If a PPA is entered into, members of the Council will be openly and appropriately engaged with the development while ensuring that their decision making function is not compromised. PPA schemes will be expected to benefit from one or more reviews by the Council’s Design Review Panel.