What to put in a pre-application enquiry pack

A pre application advice pack should be thin, specific and awkward to answer vaguely. Most are the opposite: a set of nearly finished drawings, a covering letter asking for the officer's comments, and a fee. That produces a reply that says the principle may be acceptable subject to further information, which is worth nothing.

Pre-application advice is a discretionary service, charged under the power in section 93 of the Local Government Act 2003, and the authority sets the price and the scope. You get more out of it by controlling what you ask than by sending more material.

What to send and what to hold back

Send the minimum that lets an officer understand the site, the constraints and the proposition.

• A site location plan with the application boundary marked, at a recognisable scale.
• An existing site plan based on a measured survey, with levels where the site slopes.
• Site photographs, including the views the officer would take on a visit and the relationship with neighbouring properties.
• A short written description with the numbers: unit count and mix, floor area, storey heights, parking spaces, and access arrangement.
• A list of the site's planning history with application references and outcomes.
• The constraints you have already checked, with the source and the date of each check.
• Concept drawings showing massing, footprint and approximate heights.
• Your questions, numbered.

Hold back detailed material specifications, window details and landscape planting schedules. They invite comment on matters that are not yet decided, and they make the scheme look fixed.

Hold back full technical reports unless the question you are asking is technical. Sending a flood risk assessment when you want a view on the principle of development wastes the officer's time and yours.

And think about whether to hold back anything commercially sensitive. Many authorities treat pre-application advice as confidential for a period, but information can become disclosable, so ask what the authority's position is before sending anything you would not want a neighbour to read.

Drawings at the right level of resolution

The resolution question matters more than most applicants realise. Draw too little and the officer cannot engage. Draw too much and you have spent fees on something you will change, and you have narrowed the conversation to details.

The right level is usually: a block plan showing the footprint, access, parking and garden or amenity space, one or two indicative sections through the site and the boundary with the nearest neighbour, and a massing study showing heights against the adjoining buildings. That is enough for an officer to say whether the scale and layout are acceptable in principle.

Leave elevations loose. A sketch showing proportions, storey heights and roof form is better than a fully detailed elevation with a brick specification, because it keeps the discussion on massing where it belongs.

Where the constraint is heritage or landscape, add one or two accurate visual studies from the views that matter. A single photomontage from the right viewpoint is worth more than six elevations.

The questions to ask explicitly

This is the part that determines the value of the response. Number the questions and write them so that a one-word answer is impossible.

1. Is the principle of the development acceptable in this location, and which development plan policies are engaged?
2. What weight will be given to each of those policies, and are any of them out of date or subject to an emerging replacement?
3. What is your view on the scale and massing shown, and specifically on the height at the boundary with the neighbouring property?
4. Which matters do you consider would be likely to attract an objection from a statutory consultee, and which consultees will be consulted?
5. What documents will be required for validation, including local requirements beyond the national list?
6. Would this application be determined under delegated powers or referred to committee, and on what basis?
7. What planning obligations or levy liability would you expect, and is there a published charging schedule?
8. Are there any recent decisions or appeal outcomes on comparable sites that you would draw to my attention?

Ask a closed question where you need a clear answer. "Would a two storey rear extension projecting three metres be acceptable in principle" is answerable. "What are your thoughts on the extension" is not.

Constraints already checked

Setting out what you have checked yourself does two things. It shows the officer that the enquiry is serious, and it shifts the response from a list of constraints towards a view on them.

Present them as a short table: flood zone with the date of the map check, conservation area or listed building status with the list entry reference, protected trees, contamination history from the authority's own register where public, ecology designations, and any Article 4 direction. Say where each was checked and when.

Then state the conclusion you have drawn from each, and ask the officer to correct you if it is wrong. Being corrected at pre-application stage costs a fee. Being corrected at validation costs the programme.

Fee bands and what they buy

Each authority publishes its own pre-application charging schedule, usually banded by scale of development and by service level, with a written response at the lower end and a meeting with a follow-up note at the higher end. Read the schedule before choosing, and check three things: whether a site visit is included, whether a written response is guaranteed and within what period, and whether a follow-up question is included or charged separately.

For larger or more complex schemes a planning performance agreement is worth considering. It sets out a programme, the officer time allocated and the milestones, and it usually buys access to specialist officers such as the conservation officer, the tree officer and the highways engineer in a single meeting.

One honest caveat. Pre-application advice is officer advice. It is given without prejudice to the formal decision, it does not bind the authority, and a committee can and sometimes does take a different view. Treat it as informed guidance on the likely direction rather than an assurance.

Recording the advice received

Whatever the authority sends you, write your own note of the meeting and send it to the officer within a few days, asking them to confirm or correct it. That single habit is the difference between usable advice and a recollection.

Keep the file: your enquiry, the drawings as submitted, the authority's written response, your meeting note and the officer's confirmation, and any subsequent correspondence. Name the officer and date everything.

Where the advice is given verbally at a site visit, the same applies with more urgency, because nothing else exists.

Using the response in the application

The formal application should show that the advice was taken seriously. A section of the Planning Statement setting out the pre-application reference, the date, the advice given point by point and how the submitted scheme responds to each point is one of the most effective things you can include, because it lets the case officer see the history without reconstructing it.

Where you have departed from the advice, say so and say why. An officer who finds a departure explained is far easier to deal with than one who finds it hidden. Where the advice was about a matter the officer got wrong, set out the correction politely with the evidence.

Do not overstate it. Quoting an officer as having supported the scheme when the letter said the principle may be acceptable subject to design is the fastest way to lose the officer's goodwill, and it reads badly in a committee report.

The way the advice is then carried into the documents themselves is set out in the notes on a design and access statement for a barn conversion and a planning statement for a Green Belt householder extension. If a refusal follows anyway, the note on an appeal statement of case explains how the pre-application record is used there.

To see which documents your own project is likely to need before you book the pre-application meeting, browse the 66 report types by category.

This is general guidance, not legal advice; check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.