Most homeowners in Adur start by Googling the application fee and assume that's the bill. It isn't. The £548 householder fee is just the entry point — and depending on your property, the real cost of getting planning permission can look very different. WhatCanIBuild can show you what projects like yours have actually cost to push through in Adur, based on what's been approved and refused nearby.
The short version
- The householder planning application fee in Adur is £548
- A £75.83 +VAT service charge applies to online applications submitted through the Planning Portal where the fee exceeds £100
- The fee is just one part of the cost — your property's constraints can add significant hidden expense
The fee is fixed. The complications aren't.
Adur District Council covers a surprisingly varied patch. You've got coastal towns, areas bordering the South Downs National Park, conservation areas stretching across places like Shoreham-by-Sea and Lancing, and 236 listed buildings scattered across the district. Nine Article 4 directions affect specific streets — meaning permitted development rights that most homeowners take for granted simply don't exist on those roads.
Most homeowners don't realise their street might be one of them until they're already planning a project.
If you're in or near the South Downs National Park boundary, you're on what's known as Article 1(5) land — where the rules around what you can do without permission are tightened further. Whether your property sits inside that boundary or just near it changes everything about what you can and can't do.
Why 'it depends on your property' isn't a cop-out
It's tempting to assume that because your neighbour built a rear extension without permission, you can too. But in Adur, with 7 conservation areas and a patchwork of Article 4 directions, the rules genuinely vary street by street. A project that sails through in one part of Worthing might need full planning permission — and detailed supporting documents — two roads away.
Those supporting documents cost money. Depending on what Adur's planning officers want to see, you might need a design and access statement, a heritage impact assessment, an arboricultural report, or a flood risk assessment. Each one adds to the bill before you've even had a decision.
And if your application is refused? The fee isn't refunded.
Don't assume refusal ends things
A refused application isn't necessarily fatal — but resubmitting, appealing, or revising plans all add time and cost. Knowing your odds before you apply matters.
What the fee calculator won't tell you
The Planning Portal's fee calculator will confirm the £548 figure. It won't tell you whether a similar project on your street was refused last year, what the officer's reasons were, or whether Adur's planning team has a particular pattern of decisions for your project type in your area.
That's the gap most homeowners fall into. They budget for the fee. They don't budget for the refusal.
The best way to understand what your project is actually likely to cost — and whether it's likely to succeed — is to look at what's happened to comparable applications near you. WhatCanIBuild surfaces exactly that: approval patterns, refusal reasons, and how your property's specific combination of constraints shapes your chances.
The £548 is just the starting gun. What happens next depends entirely on your property, your street, and what Adur's planning history says about projects like yours.
WhatCanIBuild gives you that picture before you commit to anything.
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