Pre-application advice service

Free help and advice

General advice on a range of common householder projects is available on the Planning Portal. You can also check the interactive guide on the Planning Portal to see what may need planning permission. 

Free advice may also be available from Planning Aid England.

Your data

We do not publish information that relates to pre-application enquiries on the website, but the confidentiality of information we hold on such matters can’t be guaranteed. We may receive requests under the Freedom of Information Act and the Environmental Information Regulations to disclose information about pre-application advice requests and the advice that we have provided.

If you consider your request to be confidential, please provide us with your reasons for this and the time period you consider that the information should remain confidential. Where we receive an application for disclosure, we will consider requests for confidentiality when deciding whether to release the information, whilst complying with the requirements of the legislation concerned.