Local plan
Islington adopted its Local Plan on 28 September 2023, comprising the Strategic and Development Management Policies, Site Allocations, and Bunhill and Clerkenwell Area Action Plan. [1]
These replace the previous Core Strategy, Development Management Policies, Site Allocations and Finsbury Local Plan; the council also identifies the London Plan and North London Waste Plan as part of the planning framework. [1]
For home projects, the council's submission guidance identifies H4 for residential layouts and accessibility, DH2 for heritage and DH4 for basement development, but their complete adopted wording and the property's mapped constraints must be checked before fixing the design. [3]
The separate Gypsy and Traveller review remains an emerging, focused change: its consultation closed on 18 August 2026, and submission by the end of December 2026 is a programme target, not adoption of a replacement borough plan. [32]
Council guidanceHouseholder design guide
The council continues to publish the Urban Design Guide SPD, adopted in January 2017, for extensions and alterations. [4]
Its rear-extension guidance calls for additions subordinate to the original building and assesses effects on neighbours; the illustrated 45-degree approach is one assessment tool, not an automatic permission or a universal maximum extension depth. [5]
Roof extensions are judged against the building and its surroundings, including the effect on coherent rooflines, rather than a blanket entitlement to add a mansard. [5]
Read the relevant area guidance and the Climate Action SPD adopted on 25 September 2025 alongside it for retrofit proposals, including windows, heat pumps, solar panels and insulation, using the council's newer application checklists rather than assuming the 2017 document contains all current requirements. [6][7][8]
Council guidanceValidation list
The application-requirements page currently links to the checklist dated 12 April 2024, whose reports and assessments depend on the proposal rather than applying to every application. [2][3]
For eligible minor extensions, refurbishments and changes of use, the 2025 Climate Action SPD provides a Sustainable Design and Construction Statement template where additional floorspace is less than 100 m² and no new dwelling is created; different requirements apply to new dwellings and larger schemes. [6][8]
The checklist's older self-build BNG exemption must not be reused for applications made from 6 August 2026: national guidance removes that exemption and introduces an exemption for sites of 0.2 hectares or less, subject to the priority-habitat exception, while retaining the householder exemption. [3][11]
Check any additional report request against NPPF policy DM2, published on 17 August 2026, including its development-plan basis and proportionality to the proposal; the April 2024 list is not, by itself, evidence that every entry has been reconciled with the newer national framework. [9][10]
Council guidanceArticle 4 directions
Islington has both conservation-area and commercial-conversion Article 4 directions, so check the relevant property schedule and map rather than assuming that a whole named neighbourhood, or every type of work, is covered. [12]
The modified Class MA direction for the Central Activities Zone and its Kings Cross fringe took effect on 19 October 2023 and excludes Angel Gate, Goswell Road; the other first-phase directions have their own mapped coverage. [12][13]
A further six Class MA directions took effect on 1 September 2025, removing the relevant Class E-to-C3 conversion right for selected mapped properties, as illustrated by the confirmed Central East instrument. [14][15]
Poets Road's management plan separately announces an Article 4 change for October 2026, so obtain the operative direction, confirmation notice and exact commencement date before relying on permitted development at an affected address. [17]
Council guidanceConservation areas
The council's current directory lists 42 conservation areas, including Poets Road, designated on 25 September 2025. [16]
Use the directory's area-specific documents and mapped boundary for the property, rather than treating one area's appraisal or alteration guidance as applicable throughout Islington. [16]
The Poets Road Management Plan adopted in October 2025 addresses alterations, roof extensions, windows, lightwells and retrofit in that area, and explains that it supports decisions rather than introducing new development-plan policy. [17][18]
Conservation-area designation and an Article 4 direction are separate controls: the register reports directions affecting 40 of the 42 areas, but that does not establish that every property or every alteration within each area is covered. [12]
Council guidanceBasement policy
Islington's current validation guidance expressly identifies DH4 and the January 2016 Basement Development SPD, so basement proposals need a specific assessment rather than an assumption that below-ground work is unrestricted. [3][19]
For extensions to existing dwellings, the SPD's garden test is less than 50% of each original garden or unbuilt area, measured separately, with basement development and other structures beyond the original footprint also smaller in area than the original dwelling footprint, whichever limit is tighter. [20]
Its general depth guidance is one storey below the lowest original habitable floor, with limited exceptions that require a separate justification rather than an automatic extra level. [20]
The council requests a Structural Method Statement signed by a Chartered Civil or Structural Engineer and a Construction Management Plan for basement applications, addressing the proposal and its effects rather than merely submitting a generic construction description. [3]
Council guidanceCIL rates
Islington's local CIL schedule took effect on 1 September 2014, with unindexed residential base rates of £300/m² in mapped Area A and £250/m² in Area B for the schedule's C3/C4 category; these are not the indexed charges payable in 2026. [21][22]
The council-linked calculator expressly warns that its results exclude indexation, so it should not be used as a final liability figure. [23]
The GLA publishes a separate 2026 ordinary Mayoral CIL2 rate of £96.97/m² for Islington, which is not a combined local-and-Mayoral rate. [24]
Obtain the current indexed local calculation and formal liability notice from the council before budgeting, and do not deduct the proposed temporary London CIL relief unless its eligibility and implementing rules have been confirmed. [23][34]
Council guidancePre-application advice
The formal pre-application page identifies its tariff as effective from 2 January 2025; checked on 3 October 2026, the published service for alterations or extensions to a single house or flat costs £480 for written advice or £700.80 for written advice with a site visit, including VAT. [25][26]
For a listed single dwelling or residential flat, written advice with a site visit is £1,440 including VAT, while proposals creating additional dwellings use the relevant minor-development category. [26]
Submit the council's form, site information and proposal drawings to planning@islington.gov.uk, selecting the appropriate service rather than assuming that a general advice call is a formal design assessment. [25][27]
A separate free climate-advice route is limited to proposals solely for the eligible energy-efficiency, microgeneration or energy-reduction works, not an extension that merely includes those measures. [26][27]
Council guidanceBuilding control
Contact Islington Building Control at building.control@islington.gov.uk or 020 7527 5999, with the site address and details of the proposed work. [29][30]
The published postal address is Building Control Services, 222 Upper Street, Islington, London N1 1XR. [29]
The current fees page links to charges effective 27 October 2025, version 2, and provides a route to request a project-specific quotation rather than assuming one standard fee covers every extension, loft or basement. [30][31]
The building-control landing page currently states that the service cannot provide development advice or answer general enquiries, so distinguish a case-specific application or fee request from a general design-advice enquiry. [28]
Council guidance