Commercial advice
The advice is for commercial and non-residential addresses. This includes:
- shops
- restaurants
- offices
- HMOs
- care homes
You can find advice on our other pages for:
- householder works (such as building an extension or loft conversion)
- creating a new residential unit (such as building a new house or converting a house into flats)
Pre-application enquiry service
You must submit all pre-application advice requests for new residential units online. You'll need to have a Redbridge account. Please include a site location plan identifying the site/land in question.
Our advice categories depend on the scale of the proposed works. This table below has full details. It is your responsibility to request the correct category of advice.
We recommended including plans for your proposed development with your advice request.
If your advice category includes an optional meeting, please let us know in your submission if you would like the meeting.
Payment
You can pay online when you make your submission. If you do not, you can submit and pay after. We'll contact you with instructions on how to pay using our automated phone line. We aim to contact you within 2 working days. 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 include VAT.
Fees are non-refundable once your request is allocated to a planning officer.
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). | £445 | +£222 |
| 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). | £1,775 | +£445 |
| 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). | £2,6665 | +£620 |
For the major development categories below, we encourage using 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. |
£5,754 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. |
£8,630 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. |
£11,500 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. |
If your advice request includes 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.
Planning performance agreements
For large or complex planning applications you should consider a planning performance agreement (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. The benefits to this process include:
- setting a realistic timetable with key milestones to be met
- more efficient use of resources by both the developer and the Planning department,
- ensuring 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.
