Most homeowners in Blaby start and stop at the application fee. £548, job done. But that number is just the entry point — and for many properties in this district, what comes after it is where the real cost, and the real risk, lives. Tools like WhatCanIBuild exist precisely because the gap between 'how much does it cost?' and 'what am I actually dealing with?' is wider than most people expect.
The short version
- The standard householder application fee in Blaby is £548
- A £75.83 + VAT service charge applies to online applications submitted through the Planning Portal where the fee exceeds £100
- Blaby has 11 conservation areas and 196 listed buildings — both can change what you need and what it costs
- Your actual total depends on your property, not just your project
The fee you know about — and the ones you don't
The £548 householder application fee covers the council's cost of processing your application. That's it. It doesn't cover drawings, it doesn't cover a planning consultant if your application is complex, and it doesn't cover a second attempt if your first one is refused. The Planning Portal also adds a service charge of £75.83 + VAT on top of any application submitted online where the fee exceeds £100 — a line item that catches a surprising number of people off guard.
Refused applications are non-refundable. Withdrawn applications are non-refundable. If you submit with the wrong fee, your application is delayed while you sort it out. Most homeowners don't realise how quickly 'simple project' costs can compound when things don't go smoothly first time.
Conservation areas and listed buildings change everything
Blaby has 11 conservation areas spread across the district. It also has 196 listed buildings on record. If your property sits within or near either, the question stops being 'do I need planning permission?' and becomes something considerably more complicated.
In a conservation area, external alterations that might fly elsewhere can require a full application — and the standards applied are different. Listed buildings carry their own consent requirements entirely separate from planning permission, with their own fee structure (and in some cases, no fee at all). Most homeowners don't realise their property is affected until they're already mid-project.
Worth knowing
Conservation area boundaries and listed building designations aren't always obvious from your address alone. A property on the edge of a zone can be just as affected as one at its centre — sometimes more so.
Why your neighbour's experience probably doesn't apply to you
It's tempting to ask around. Someone on your street got an extension approved, no bother. But planning decisions in Blaby — like everywhere — are made on a property-by-property basis. Your plot dimensions, your existing permitted development history, whether there's an Article 4 direction affecting your street, your proximity to a conservation area boundary — all of it feeds into what applies to you specifically.
The best way to understand what your property is actually dealing with isn't to guess based on what worked nearby. WhatCanIBuild shows you what's been approved and refused for similar projects near your address, and what that actually means for your chances — not just whether you're in a conservation area, but what that designation has meant in practice for projects like yours.
So what does it really cost?
For a straightforward householder application in Blaby: £548 plus the £75.83 + VAT portal service charge if you apply online. But 'straightforward' is doing a lot of work in that sentence. Add in professional fees if your project needs them, the cost of a resubmission if it doesn't go to plan, and the time lost if you've started work that turns out to need consent — and the real cost looks very different.
Before you budget, the best way to know what you're genuinely dealing with is to check your specific property. WhatCanIBuild surfaces the approval history, local patterns, and property-level detail that tells you whether your project is likely to be straightforward — or not.
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