What drives the price of a Planning Statement
Planning Statement quotes vary widely because the research behind them does. Here is what drives the price and where you can reasonably do more yourself.
A Planning Statement for a householder extension is a short document, often six to ten pages, that explains what is proposed and why it complies with policy. Consultants typically quote somewhere between £500 and £2,500 for one, and the spread is not about page count. It is about how much thinking the site needs before anyone writes a word.
Understanding what sits behind the quote lets you brief better, compare like with like, and work out where a drafted document plus a professional review would serve you as well as a full appointment.
What you are paying someone to do
The writing is the smallest part. A consultant preparing a statement for a rear extension on a semi is doing several things before the document exists.
They read the adopted local plan and pull out the policies that apply, which usually means a design policy, an amenity policy, a residential extensions policy and possibly a heritage or parking policy. They check whether a supplementary planning document on householder design applies, because those carry detailed rules on depth, height and window positions. They look at the planning history of the property and the immediate neighbours, because a refusal two doors down on the same issue changes the argument. They check constraints: conservation area, Article 4 direction, tree preservation order, flood zone. Then they write.
On a straightforward site that is two or three hours of work. On a constrained one it is a day, and the cost follows.
The five things that move the price
| Factor | Effect on cost |
|---|---|
| Constraints on the site | Each designation adds research and usually a separate section |
| Planning history | A previous refusal means addressing the reasons head on |
| Policy complexity | A recently adopted local plan with detailed design policy takes longer than an old one |
| Scale of the proposal | A two-storey side and rear extension raises more issues than a single-storey rear |
| Whether drawings exist | Writing to finished drawings is faster than advising during design |
Listed buildings change the exercise entirely, because the statement becomes a heritage document with a different structure and a different evidence base. That is a Heritage Statement rather than a planning statement, and it is priced accordingly.
The other quiet cost driver is revisions. A fixed fee that covers one round of amendments is common, and schemes that change three times after submission attract additional charges. Ask what is included before you agree.
What a good statement contains
Whoever writes it, the document should cover the same ground.
- The application site and its surroundings, described accurately with dimensions.
- The proposal, described so that someone who has not seen the drawings can picture it.
- Relevant planning history for the site and comparable decisions nearby.
- The policy framework, naming the local plan policies and the national position.
- Assessment against each policy, in the order the officer will read them.
- Amenity effects on each neighbouring property, addressed individually.
- A short conclusion tying the assessment to the recommendation.
Officers read for the assessment section. A statement that describes the proposal at length and then asserts compliance in two sentences does not help them write their report, and their report is what the decision rests on.
The single most valuable paragraph is usually the one about the neighbour at the boundary. Give the distance from the new flank wall to their window, the height above their fence, the orientation, and where the shadow falls in the afternoon. That is the paragraph that gets copied into the officer report.
Where the fee goes on a difficult site
A worked illustration, presented as illustrative only. A 1930s semi in a conservation area, with a mature sycamore covered by a tree preservation order in the rear garden, and a refusal from 2019 for a similar extension on overbearing grounds.
That statement needs a conservation area appraisal check, an assessment of the extension against the appraisal's description of local character, a section addressing the 2019 refusal and what has changed, and coordination with an arboricultural report on root protection areas. It will reference a Tree Survey prepared separately, because the planning consultant does not write that. The fee reflects four or five hours of reading before drafting, and the document is longer because it has more to answer.
Compare that with a single-storey rear extension on an unconstrained 1980s estate house with no planning history. Same document type, a fraction of the work.
Doing more of it yourself
There is a middle path that suits a lot of householders. Draft the statement, then pay a professional to review and correct it, rather than paying for the whole exercise.
That works where the site is simple and you are willing to do the reading. It works less well where a previous refusal has to be answered, because knowing which arguments an officer will accept is the part that comes from experience.
PlanScope drafts a Planning Statement from your postcode, the property details and a set of guided answers, with the site constraints checked automatically against flood, heritage and ecology data. The draft cites policy and flags missing facts rather than inventing them. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.
Pricing is published and does not vary by site: one free report, £50 per report on the pay per report option, or £150 per month or £600 per year on Professional for architects, agents and consultants who need unlimited reports and their own branding. The full detail is on the pricing page.
What you can do to bring the fee down
Two things reduce a quote more than negotiation does.
The first is finishing the drawings before you commission the statement. Writing to final drawings takes a fraction of the time of advising through three design iterations, and most consultants price the uncertainty into the fee when the scheme is still moving.
The second is gathering the background yourself. Pull the planning history for your property and the two houses either side from the council's public register, download the conservation area appraisal if there is one, and note the local plan policy numbers from the council's policies map. That is an hour of your time and it removes an hour of theirs.
What does not reduce the fee is asking for a shorter document. The research is the cost, and a shorter statement that omits the neighbour assessment simply makes refusal more likely.
Questions to ask before you appoint anyone
Ask what the fee covers and what it excludes. Ask how many rounds of amendments are included. Ask whether the consultant will handle officer correspondence after submission or whether that is charged separately. Ask whether they have dealt with this council recently, because local plan knowledge is the part that cannot be looked up quickly.
Ask, too, whether a planning statement is actually required. Many councils do not list one on the validation checklist for householder applications, and on a simple extension a well-drafted covering letter addressing the design policy can do the same job. Paying for a document the council did not ask for is the most avoidable cost in the whole process.
Check the validation checklist first. It is published on the council's website, it is specific to that authority, and it tells you exactly which documents the application will be rejected without. Then decide what the statement needs to do, and buy that.
This is general guidance, not legal advice. Check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it.
Frequently asked questions
Do I always need a Planning Statement for a householder application?
Often not. Many councils do not list one on their validation checklist for householder applications, and a well-drafted covering letter addressing the design and amenity policies can do the same job. Check the authority's published validation checklist before commissioning anything, because it sets out exactly which documents the application will be rejected without.
Why do quotes vary so much for the same document?
Because the research varies, not the writing. Site constraints such as a conservation area, an Article 4 direction or a protected tree each add a section and the reading behind it. A previous refusal has to be answered directly. A recently adopted local plan with detailed design policy takes longer to work through than an older one.
What should a Planning Statement contain?
A description of the site and the proposal, the planning history including comparable decisions nearby, the relevant local plan policies and national position, an assessment against each policy, and a section addressing the effect on each neighbouring property individually. The assessment section is the part officers read most closely when writing their report.
Is a Heritage Statement the same thing?
No. A Heritage Statement assesses the significance of a designated asset and the effect of the proposal on that significance, following a different structure and evidence base. Listed buildings and works in conservation areas usually need one, and it is priced separately from a planning statement because it is a different piece of work.
Can I write the statement myself and have it checked?
Yes, and on a simple site that is a sensible route. Draft it, then pay a professional to review and correct it. This works less well where a previous refusal has to be answered, because judging which arguments an officer will accept is the part that comes from experience rather than from reading the policy.
Sources and further reading
This article is general guidance about the planning system in England and, where stated, the rest of the UK. It is not legal or professional advice. Check your local planning authority’s validation requirements and take professional advice for your specific site.