Documents for a full application for one new dwelling

A full planning application for one new dwelling needs five things nationally: the completed application form, plans identifying the land, the correct ownership and agricultural holdings certificates, the fee, and the biodiversity information the procedure order now requires. Everything else comes from the council's own local validation checklist, and that is where single plot applications usually fall over.

Validation officers work through a list. Give them the list in the order they check it and the application goes live in days rather than weeks.

The nationally required documents

Start with the items no council can waive.

The application form is submitted through the Planning Portal or on the council's own form. Complete every question, including the ones about trees, flooding and foul drainage, because a blank field is treated as missing information.

The ownership certificate follows. Certificate A if you own the whole site and nobody else has had an interest in the last 21 days, and the appropriate alternative certificate with notice served if anyone else does. Plus the agricultural holdings certificate, which people skip and which is required whether or not the land is agricultural.

The fee for a new dwelling is set nationally and indexed annually, so take the current figure from the published fee schedule rather than from a guide written last year. An underpaid fee makes the application invalid.

Then the biodiversity information. Applications for planning permission have to state whether the applicant believes the biodiversity gain condition applies, and supply the prescribed details about the pre-development value of the onsite habitat. This applies even where an exemption is claimed, which is the part most self-builders miss.

Plans and drawings at the right scales

Drawings cause more invalidations than reports do, usually for reasons that have nothing to do with the design.

Every drawing needs a unique number, a revision letter, a scale bar and a north point on plans. Number them before submission and list the numbers in a covering schedule. When a case officer later asks for a change, the amended drawing keeps the number and gains a revision, which keeps the decision notice clean.

Show the whole plot on the site plan, including where the bins stand on collection day and where a car turns. Officers notice the absence of both.

Biodiversity information and the self-build exemption

Mandatory biodiversity net gain came into force for major development in February 2024 and for small sites in April 2024, requiring a ten per cent gain maintained for 30 years.

Self-builders are usually outside it. The exemption covers self-build and custom housebuilding where the development consists exclusively of self-build or custom build dwellings, is nine dwellings or fewer, and sits on a site of no more than half a hectare. Householder development is separately exempt, as is development below the de minimis threshold where no priority habitat is affected.

Claiming an exemption is a positive act. State which exemption applies and why, with the site area and the number of dwellings, and keep the evidence that the homes meet the self-build definition, because the authority can ask for it. Where no exemption applies, a Biodiversity Net Gain Assessment with a completed statutory metric is needed, and the metric has to be completed by a competent person.

Ecology can still be required even when net gain is not. If the plot contains a building to be demolished, mature trees, a pond within 500 metres or unmanaged scrub, expect the council to ask for a preliminary ecological appraisal before validating.

Drainage and flood information

Two questions decide what is needed here: where does surface water go, and is the site at risk of flooding.

For surface water, work down the drainage hierarchy. Infiltration first, tested rather than assumed, then discharge to a watercourse, then to a surface water sewer, with connection to a combined sewer as the last resort and usually with the water company's agreement. Many councils have a drainage proforma on the local list that asks exactly this.

A Flood Risk Assessment is needed where the site is in Flood Zone 2 or 3, on a site of one hectare or more, or where the council has identified a critical drainage area. Check the flood map for planning before assuming Zone 1, and check the council's surface water mapping as well, because the two tell different stories on many sites.

Where there is no mains foul drainage, a foul drainage assessment is required, and a package treatment plant or septic tank brings its own consenting route with the Environment Agency.

Highways and access

For a single dwelling the highway authority wants four things: a safe access with visibility splays measured against recorded traffic speeds, parking to the local standard with dimensions shown, turning space so that a car leaves in forward gear on anything other than a quiet street, and the position of any new or altered dropped kerb.

Works to the public highway need a separate agreement with the highway authority, and that is a different process with its own fee and timescale. Start it early, because a permission that cannot be implemented until a crossing is built is not much use in March when you wanted to start on site in April.

Cycle parking and electric vehicle charging appear on many local lists now, and charging provision for new dwellings is dealt with in the Building Regulations in any event.

Local list items that vary by council

This is the part nobody can write generically, and the reason to read the council's checklist before you design the submission. Items that commonly appear for a single dwelling:

1. A tree survey to BS 5837 where trees stand on or adjacent to the site.
2. A contaminated land screening assessment on previously developed land or former agricultural buildings.
3. A coal mining risk assessment in a coalfield referral area.
4. A heritage statement where the plot lies in a conservation area or near a listed building.
5. A daylight and sunlight assessment where the new house sits close to neighbouring windows.
6. A parking survey or parking beat survey in areas of high on-street demand.
7. A CIL additional information form, which is required even where nothing is payable.
8. An energy or sustainability statement where local policy requires one.

Browse all 66 report types if you want to see what each of these documents contains before commissioning one. And where a Design and Access Statement is required, it is a short document that explains the design reasoning rather than a description of the drawings.

Assembling the pack in the right order

Submit everything at once. A pack that arrives in instalments starts its clock from the last item, and the case officer forms an impression from the first.

A workable order: forms and certificates, drawing schedule, drawings, design statement, then the technical reports in the order the local list names them. Give every file a name that says what it is and which drawing or report number it carries. Keep a copy of the validation checklist with your ticks against it, and send it with the application.

An illustrative example. A self-builder submitted a plot application in a conservation area with a full drawing set, a heritage statement and a tree survey, but no agricultural holdings certificate and an unnumbered site plan. Both fixes took ten minutes. The application sat invalid for three weeks because the email went to an unmonitored address during annual leave.

This is general guidance, not legal advice; check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it.

To see which reports a plot is likely to need before you commission anything, enter the plot postcode on PlanScope.

PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.