How much does planning permission really cost in Croydon?

Most Croydon homeowners assume planning permission costs whatever the council charges to process the application. The reality is considerably messier — and until you see what actually applies to your specific address — free, in about a minute, you're guessing at a moving target.

The £548 fee is just the entry ticket

Croydon Council charges £548 for a householder planning application — covering the kind of work most people are doing, like extensions and loft conversions. That fee is non-refundable whether your application is approved, refused, or withdrawn after submission.

But the application fee is only one line in the real cost of planning permission. Add architect or planning consultant fees to draw up compliant designs. Add pre-application advice if your project sits in a sensitive area (Croydon Council offers this as a paid service). Add the cost of specialist reports — flood risk assessments in the Wandle valley, heritage statements near Croydon Minster or Addington Village, arboricultural surveys if there are protected trees nearby. None of this is included in the £548.

Most homeowners don't realise how quickly those extras stack up — or that they're often not optional.

Where you live in Croydon changes everything

Croydon is a large and varied borough. A homeowner in a straightforward CR0 street faces a very different planning landscape than someone in Coulsdon, South Norwood, or on the Kenley fringe where Green Belt and National Landscape designations apply. Article 4 Directions in parts of Shirley, Coulsdon, and Upper Norwood strip away some permitted development rights that homeowners elsewhere in the borough take for granted — meaning work you'd assume doesn't need permission actually does.

Conservation area status around Croydon Minster, Waddon, and Addington Village adds another layer. Being inside one doesn't automatically mean refusal — but it does mean additional scrutiny, potentially additional reports, and a much less predictable outcome.

The cost of getting it wrong

A refused application isn't just a delay. You pay the fee again on resubmission. If you've already commissioned drawings based on a scheme that doesn't reflect your property's constraints, those costs don't come back either. And if you've started work assuming you had permitted development rights that your property — due to an Article 4 Direction or listed building status — doesn't actually have, enforcement action is a real possibility.

The issue isn't that Croydon's planning system is hostile. It's that the rules that apply to your property depend on factors that aren't visible from a general guide. What was approved for your neighbour two years ago might not apply to you, even on the same street.

The best way to get ahead of this is to check how projects like yours have actually performed in your part of Croydon — not just what the rules say in theory, but what the approval record looks like in practice.

With an 8-week typical decision window at Croydon Council, the planning process itself isn't unusually slow. But arriving at that window with the wrong information, the wrong drawings, or an unexpected report requirement is where projects fall apart — and where costs spiral.

Before you commit to anything, find out what your property's specific constraint mix means for your project's chances — no signup, takes about a minute.