Most homeowners in Brighton and Hove start with the same question: how much does planning permission cost? They find the £548 householder application fee, think they've got their answer, and move on. They haven't. WhatCanIBuild exists precisely because the fee is the easy part — what comes after is where it gets complicated.
The short version
- The householder application fee is £548, but that's rarely the full picture
- Brighton and Hove has 32 conservation areas and 1,229 listed buildings — your property's history affects your costs
- Proximity to the South Downs National Park can restrict what you can do without permission at all
The £548 is just the entry ticket
Submit your application through the Planning Portal and you'll also pay a service charge of £75.83 + VAT on top of the application fee — that's before you've paid anyone to prepare the application itself. Architects, planning consultants, heritage statements, design and access statements — depending on your project and your property, these can dwarf the fee itself.
And that's assuming your application goes smoothly. If it doesn't — if it's refused, or if you need to revise and resubmit — costs compound quickly. Most homeowners don't realise that a refused application doesn't come with a refund.
Brighton and Hove's hidden cost multipliers
Here's where it gets property-specific. Brighton and Hove has 32 conservation areas. Whether your home sits inside one, on the edge of one, or on a street with a history of contentious decisions matters enormously — not just for whether you'll get permission, but for how much professional support you'll need to give your application a fighting chance.
Then there are the 1,229 listed buildings across the city. If yours is one of them — or even if you're in a terrace where a neighbour's property is listed — the scope of what needs specialist input changes.
And if your property is near the South Downs National Park boundary, you may be on Article 1(5) land. That changes what counts as permitted development and what requires a formal application in the first place. Most owners of affected properties have no idea until it's too late.
Don't assume your street is straightforward
Conservation area boundaries, Article 4 directions, and flood zone designations don't follow obvious lines. Two houses on the same street can face completely different requirements.
The cost of getting it wrong
A refused application still costs you the fee and all the preparation work. An enforcement notice — because work was done without permission when permission was required — can cost far more. In a city with this level of heritage coverage and planning sensitivity, the gap between "I assumed this was fine" and "this needed permission" is where expensive mistakes happen.
The actual cost of your project depends on a combination of factors that are unique to your property: its designation status, what's been approved or refused nearby, which constraints overlap on your specific address, and how Brighton and Hove City Council has historically treated similar applications in your area. That last point — what's actually been approved on your street — is something most homeowners never think to check.
WhatCanIBuild shows you the full picture for your specific address: what constraints apply, what's been approved and refused nearby, and what your approval odds actually look like given your property's combination of factors. That's the kind of intelligence that changes whether you spend £548 once or multiple times.
Before you budget for any project in Brighton and Hove, the best way to understand your real costs is to check what your property is actually up against — not just what the fee schedule says.
WhatCanIBuild gives you that picture in minutes.
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