Submit a planning application

Please note: Due to the continued high volume of submitted applications, there may be a delay in the assessment and determination of planning applications. It may take longer than the statutory 8 or 13 weeks to determine your application but we will endeavour to determine your application as soon as possible. You may receive a request from the Case Officer to agree to an extended period of time to determine the application.

Please be assured that Case Officers are working extremely hard to progress these, and other service demands, as quickly as possible. We ask that customers respect our Officers when they are providing a planning service and that they treat them fairly and appropriately. Behaviours which are unreasonable or excessively challenging towards any individual will not be tolerated.

There are a number of ways to submit a planning application. Online submissions can be made via The Planning Portal.  This method has several advantages in that we receive your application instantly, you can begin to check progress on it sooner and you do not have to print and copy the various forms and plans. If you apply through The Planning Portal you can also pay the application fee online.

For more details, visit The Planning Portal website. The Planning Portal Support Team can be contacted on 0333 3234589.   

Please be aware that this service will incur an administration fee in addition to the planning application fee.  However, all fee exempt applications and all applications where the fee is less than £60 will not incur a service charge for submission through The Planning Portal.

In order to avoid delay in the registration process, you are encouraged to clearly and correctly label plans accompanying your on-line application.  The preferred description format is Plan Title, followed by the Plan Reference Number (for example, Front Elevation P-001).

You can also download paper forms from The Planning Portal and submit your application directly to the Council in hard copy form or via our email address can be found here. There is no charge for submitting an application this way.

Please note: Redditch Borough Council has not adopted a Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) so there is no need to complete this section on your application form.

Make sure it is 'valid'

 A guidance note for potential applicants to refer to when considering the submission of a planning application can be found here.

If an application has everything it needs, it is called a valid application. We have to send invalid applications back to be completed, which causes costs and delays. Around half of all applications we receive are invalid! If you need any help or advice on this please contact us beforehand.

As a general guide, a standard planning application requires all of the following to be valid:

1. Payment of fees
2. Your application form, your design and access statement if applicable, your block plan, your plans and elevations for both existing and proposed work, your location plan to scale at either 1:1250 or 1:2500 (including: a North Point; at least one and preferably two road names; at least three properties identified by name or number; minimum A4 sized). If you are submitting a paper application, you will need to submit two copies of everything.
3. Fire Statement (for some planning applications made on or after 1 August 2021)

4. Statement of Significance or Heritage Statement.  You may need to produce a Statement of Significance/Heritage Statement to accompany a planning application or a listed building consent application.  The level of detail should be proportionate to the importance of the assets and no more than is sufficient to understand the potential impact of the proposal on their significance.  Some proposals will affect more than one asset, so the statement should address them all. Paragraph 189 of the National Planning Policy Framework states that as a minimum the relevant historic environment record should have been consulted and the heritage assets assessed using appropriate expertise where necessary. Where a site includes or has the potential to include heritage assets with archaeological interest, applicants may be required to submit an appropriate desk-based assessment and, where necessary, a field evaluation.  Heritage assets may be “designated” (i.e. they have been formally assessed and recognised as heritage assets under national designation regimes) or “non-designated” (i.e. identified by or through the Borough Council and acknowledged at a local level). 

Heritage assets, designated under the relevant legislation, comprise the following:

• Conservation Areas
• Listed Buildings
• Registered Parks and Gardens
• Scheduled Monuments
• World Heritage Sites

Non-designated heritage assets will typically be buildings, archaeological sites and historic parks and gardens that have value but have not yet been assessed or are of sufficient quality to merit designation at local level.

In practice, the compilation of a Statement of Significance/Heritage Statement will be applicable to the following types of proposal:

• Development requiring listed building consent
• Development within the curtilage of a listed building
• Development within or adjoining a Conservation Area
• Development affecting a Registered Park or Garden of Special Historic Interest
• Applications affecting an unlisted building on the Historic Environment Record (HER).
• Applications affecting non-designated heritage assets identified by the Borough Council during the consideration of an application.  In these circumstances, the Authority accepts that a Statement of Significance/Heritage Statement may have to follow the rest of the application particulars, or that a submitted Heritage Statement may have to be amended.

What we must consider for each application

To ensure that local development is directed in the public interest, we consider:

1. Local planning policies
2. The individual merits of the proposed development
3. The context of the development site and its surroundings
4. National planning policies including government guidance.

We must determine all planning applications in accordance with local and national policy, unless material considerations indicate otherwise.

External Advice Information

The Council will seek to obtain the full cost of obtaining external specialist advice from the applicant in connection with relevant formal planning proposals, including the variation of legal agreements.  Prior notification applications subject to the 28 day determination limitation are specifically excluded from this process.

The cost of submitting a pre- application enquiry is set locally through the Council’s annual review of Fees and Charges. This cost seeks to cover Officer time and assists in making the Planning service more cost neutral to the Council as a whole.

In February 2020, this review introduced the concept of recovering other costs associated with the Planning service.  In a limited number of cases the Council will need to obtain external specialist advice in connection with planning queries. Such advice may be needed, for example where the applicant presents a viability case to justify a development approach; where the agricultural need for a development requires consideration; specific advice as to the ecological potential of a site or the urban design credentials of a scheme. This expertise is not always available in-house and in such instances the Council uses a Framework of appointed independent advisors to critically evaluate such proposals.

As of 1 April 2020, the principle of recovering the cost of securing external advice from the applicant has been agreed through the Council's decision-making processes. The benefit of the development is seen by the applicant and thus the principle of the applicant paying these additional and unusual costs is justified. This approach is also in line with other Councils within Worcestershire.

The Council will be responsible for notifying the applicant/agent that this process applies and will seek the applicant’s agreement in principle to pay these costs. The Council will then, using the Framework, secure the relevant advice and pay the external advisor. Once the applicant has reimbursed the Council, the relevant information will be released and the merits of its contents evaluated.

If payment is not received the Council reserves the right to withhold the contents of the obtained advice.  In relation to formal applications, the scheme may be refused on the grounds that the proposal has not been appropriately adjudicated.  The Council may also need to continue to procure advice in order to inform its position. If the scheme is refused and a subsequent appeal is lodged, it may be appropriate for the Council to seek to recover those costs through an appropriate costs claim.

Costs are subject to VAT at the normal rate. Payment should be made to the Council using the invoice number provided. When making a payment it is advised that you also notify the relevant Case Officer accordingly.

Calculate Your Planning Fee

Fees for planning are set nationally.

Use this calculator to work out how much your fee will be via the Planning Portal Fee Calculator.

Here are the national regulations from legislation.gov.uk.

Pay your planning fee

The Planning Portal will automatically process all payments for planning applications made online.  This means that you will be able to pay for your online application via The Planning Portal using a standardised set of payment options:

1. Secure online payment by credit or debit card (for payments up to £1,000)
2. Payment by telephone (for payments up to £1,000)
3. Payment by BACS electronic transfer
4. Payment by cheque
5. Nominating somebody else to pay online

For non-Planning Portal application submissions, you have the following options:

1. Via BACS electronic transfer. Use sort code 309697 and account number 00369020 and quote 3201–90010–41169 and the planning reference number.  It is important that you telephone the planning team on 01527 881770 to confirm the transaction.
2. With a cheque for the correct amount with the first line of the site address on the reverse and a covering letter to this address
3. Over the telephone with us here. If an Officer is not available when you call, please leave a message and we will call you back
4. Cash payments are not accepted
5. Request a secure payment link - please contact us, here are our contact details.

Privacy Notice

We collect, hold and process information supplied by you in accordance with the Data Protection Act, to allow us to provide services effectively.

The Privacy Notice for Development Management and the submission of applications is available here.