Planning permission in Barnet starts at a householder application fee of £258. Most homeowners stop there. But that number tells you almost nothing about what your project will actually cost — or whether it'll get approved at all. WhatCanIBuild exists precisely because the gap between the headline fee and the full picture is where most projects run into trouble.
The short version
- The householder application fee in Barnet is £258, but additional charges and complications can significantly increase the real cost
- Barnet has over 15 conservation areas, Green Belt fringe land, and a patchwork of other constraints — and your address determines which apply to you
The fee is just the beginning
On top of the £258 application fee, there's a Planning Portal service charge of £75.83 + VAT for applications submitted online that attract a fee over £100. That's before you've paid for drawings, a planning consultant, or any specialist reports your application might require.
And here's what most homeowners don't realise: an incorrect fee delays your application. If you submit with the wrong amount, the clock doesn't start until it's corrected. Getting the fee wrong isn't just an admin issue — it can cost you weeks.
Where Barnet gets complicated
Barnet is not a straightforward borough to navigate. It has over 15 conservation areas — covering parts of East Barnet, Totteridge, Mill Hill, and beyond — and properties on the Green Belt fringe to the north face additional restrictions that don't apply elsewhere in the borough.
Then there are Article 4 directions, listed buildings, flood zone designations, and other property-specific constraints that can quietly change the rules for your project. The question isn't just whether Barnet has these things. It's whether your specific address sits inside one of them — and what that actually means for what you're trying to build.
Two houses on the same street can face completely different planning landscapes. That's not an exaggeration. It's how the system works.
Don't assume permitted development applies
Even if your neighbour built something similar without applying, that doesn't mean you can. Permitted development rights can be removed at the property level, street level, or area level — and you may not know until you check.
What really drives approval odds
The fee you pay doesn't change based on how likely your application is to succeed. But your chances of approval vary enormously depending on your project type, your property's constraints, and how similar applications have fared nearby.
Barnet's typical decision time is 8 weeks. If your application comes back refused, you're looking at either an appeal — which adds time and cost — or a resubmission with amended plans. Most homeowners don't budget for that scenario because they didn't know it was a real risk for their specific project.
The best way to understand your actual approval odds — not just the fee, but what's been approved and refused on your street, how your property's combination of constraints affects your chances, and what similar projects nearby have achieved — is to use WhatCanIBuild before you commit to anything.
Before you budget, check your property
The £258 figure is real. But it's the starting point for a process that varies significantly depending on where in Barnet you are, what you're building, and what constraints sit on your title. WhatCanIBuild pulls together the things that actually determine your risk and your costs — not just the constraints you're in, but what they mean for your specific project, based on what's happened to similar applications nearby.
If you're planning anything in Barnet, the best way to know what you're actually getting into is to check your address first.
Want a detailed planning report?
Get a personalised report covering constraints, precedents, and approval odds for your project.
See a sample report