Brent

Local plan

Brent’s Local Plan 2019–2041, adopted in February 2022, is read alongside the London Plan, West London Waste Plan and relevant neighbourhood plans; first check whether the address is in the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation (OPDC) planning area, where different planning documents apply. [1]

For home projects, start with DMP1 on design and amenity, BH11 on family-house conversions, BD3 on basements and BSUI3 on flood risk, while also applying current national policy and the NPPF’s Annex A approach to materially inconsistent local policies. [2][46]

Under BH11, converting a house with three or more bedrooms normally requires an existing or acceptably extendable 130 m² home, retention of at least one three-bedroom dwelling, preferably with direct garden access, and a Public Transport Accessibility Level (PTAL) of 3 or above; its narrow exception concerns poor living conditions that cannot reasonably be improved enough for family occupation. [2]

The replacement plan remains in preparation, with formal commencement expected on 31 October 2026, not an adopted replacement. [35][51]

Householder design guide

Use the Residential Extensions and Alterations SPD adopted on 16 January 2025 for Brent’s guidance on rear and side extensions, roof alterations, porches, boundaries and related changes. [3][4]

Its paragraph 1.5.3 expressly excludes conservation areas and listed buildings from its intended scope, so use the relevant heritage guidance instead. [4]

As one roof-design example, paragraphs 3.6.9–3.6.10 say L-shaped rear dormers are generally acceptable, set at least 0.2 m above the eaves on all sides and the outrigger dormer extending no more than 50% of the depth of the two-storey rear projection. [4]

These are design criteria for assessing a proposal, not permission to build or a substitute for checking permitted-development rights, the property’s characteristics and effects on neighbours. [4]

Validation list

Start with Brent’s Preparing your planning application page and the checklist for your application type: its linked householder checklist asks for site photographs and a landscape plan for all householder applications, a Basement Impact Assessment for all basement applications, and other reports when their stated triggers apply. [55][43][45]

The full/outline/technical-details checklist separately lists a Planning Fire Safety Statement or Reasonable Exception Statement for non-major proposals; use the checklist for the correct application type rather than assuming its requirements match the householder list. [44]

Check additional report requests against NPPF policy DM2 and discuss any proposed omission with the council, providing the written justification its checklist requests. [43][46]

For BNG, the national exemption from 6 August 2026 covers red-line sites of 0.2 ha or less unless priority habitat is affected, while the separate self-build exemption has ended for new applications made on or after that date; the householder exemption remains. [10]

Article 4 directions

Brent’s confirmed direction removing the C3-to-C4 small-HMO permitted-development route took effect on 1 November 2022, but it is not borough-wide. [11][49]

The confirmation notice excludes OPDC, specified site allocations within the Church End Growth Area, and the other seven Growth Areas; check the mapped boundary rather than assuming that every property in Church End is excluded. [49][50]

The four commercial-to-residential directions originally took effect on 1 August 2022, and Brent publishes ministerial modification notices dated 9 February 2024 with separate map sets; that signature date must not be mistaken for the modifications’ commencement, which the instruments tie to publication or service of notice. [11][14][15][16]

Check the relevant modified instrument and mapped land for industrial sites, allocations, town centres or other employment sites, with conservation directions and OPDC’s own directions as separate checks. [11][17][18]

Conservation areas

Use Brent’s conservation-area directory and linked maps to identify the correct character appraisal, design guide and Article 4 instrument; Kensal Rise was designated on 28 May 2024. [18][40]

The newer directions for Kensal Rise, Mapesbury, Queen’s Park and Willesden Green were confirmed on 22 July 2025 and took effect on 1 September 2025, but each direction’s works, exceptions and boundary must be checked individually; the directory also links a separate Brondesbury non-immediate direction. [18][19][20][21][22]

Queen’s Park’s 2013 design guide normally rejects front dormers and sets its own rear-dormer proportions, but its amendment of 2 July 2015 accepts a single modest, flush conservation-style front rooflight that is sensitively positioned above a first-floor window—these are different types of roof alteration. [24]

Kensal Rise’s appraisal emphasises retaining original roof forms, chimneys and front gardens and matching original window and door character; read it alongside the confirmed direction rather than as a substitute for that instrument. [19][40]

Basement policy

Brent has a specific basement policy: BD3 in the adopted Local Plan, supplemented by the June 2017 Basement SPD, which remains in the council’s guidance index. [2][3][25]

For basement development of an existing property, BD3 requires habitable space to be ancillary to the dwelling above, no greater width than the original building, no extension beyond the existing front elevation, a maximum 3 m rear projection and one storey down, with floor-to-ceiling limits of 4 m for detached properties and 3 m otherwise. [2]

BD3 itself—not only the SPD—also requires flush rooflights close to the building, modest lightwells preferably at the rear, front lightwells no larger than the smaller of 800 mm or half the garden’s length, and suitable pumped protection against sewer flooding. [2][25]

Prepare Brent’s Basement Impact Assessment and its triggered tree, heritage, drainage, contamination or noise evidence, and check BSUI3, which rules out new basement dwellings in areas of high flood risk rather than imposing a blanket ban on every kind of basement. [2][43][45]

CIL rates

For permissions granted in 2026 within Brent’s charging area, the published indexed residential CIL rate is £357.14/m², compared with its £200/m² base rate; classify other uses separately and establish chargeable floorspace and any available exemptions or relief before calculating liability. [26]

The separate 2026 Mayoral CIL2 Band 2 rate is £72.73/m², not its unindexed £60/m² base rate. [27]

Do not apply Brent's rate to the OPDC charging area: OPDC's schedule took effect on 1 April 2024, and its 2026 residential rate is £83.99/m² in both charging zones, with Mayoral CIL additional where chargeable. [28][29]

Proposed temporary London borough-CIL relief should not be deducted without checking the final implementing provisions, eligibility and commencement. [38]

Pre-application advice

Brent’s published prices checked on 10 October 2026 are £195.60 for written householder advice and £450 for written advice on one home or up to 99 m², with an optional meeting costing a further £195.60 for either service. [42]

For small housing schemes, the published written-advice-and-meeting prices are £1,731.60 for two to four homes and £3,060 for five to nine homes. [42]

These published amounts match the approved 2026/27 schedule’s VAT-exclusive fees with 20% added; confirm the selected service and total at payment rather than adding VAT again to the webpage’s figures. [42][47][48]

Apply and pay through the linked online service with drawings or sketches and photographs: for householder and minor enquiries the council aims to respond within 20 working days of receiving the enquiry and fee, or agree a revised timeframe, and its advice is informal rather than a guarantee of permission. [42]

Building control

Contact Brent Building Control through the online contact link on its Before you apply page, or write to Building Control, Brent Civic Centre, Engineers Way, Wembley, HA9 0FJ. [31]

The approved 2026/27 fees schedule lists £949.25 excluding VAT against domestic loft conversions and £995.82 excluding VAT against domestic single-storey extensions, but does not give the relevant size bands or plan-check/inspection split in those entries. [47][48]

Obtain a project-specific total and confirmation of what it covers rather than applying the separate guidance tariff headed 1 January 2022 as though it were a current quotation. [31][32][47]

Council building control and a registered building control approver are separate approval routes, subject to the Building Safety Regulator’s responsibilities, and the Building Safety Levy has applied to qualifying applications and notices from 1 October 2026, with its own charging conditions and exemptions. [33][41][52]

The 2026 Future Homes and Buildings Standards regulations generally commence on 24 March 2027. Specified provisions for higher-risk building work and work to existing higher-risk buildings commence on 24 September 2027, with separate transitional arrangements. Confirm the provisions, application and start dates applicable to the project; the new-home standard is not a blanket requirement to retrofit an existing home. [39]