How much does planning permission really cost in Greenwich?

Most Greenwich homeowners start by googling the application fee and assume that's the answer. It isn't. The real cost of planning permission depends on your property, your project, and a set of local factors that most people don't discover until something goes wrong. Tools like WhatCanIBuild exist precisely because the fee is the easy part — everything else is where it gets complicated.

The fee is fixed. Everything else isn't.

For a standard householder application in Greenwich, the fee is £258. Submit it online through the Planning Portal and you'll also pay a service charge of £75.83 + VAT on top of that. Those numbers are fixed.

But that's where the certainty ends.

If your application is refused and you appeal, you're back to square one — with time and money spent and nothing to show for it. If you submit the wrong application type, the fee won't be refunded. If you need a planning consultant, architect drawings, or specialist reports, those costs sit entirely outside the application fee — and they vary enormously depending on what your property needs.

Most homeowners don't realise how quickly the total bill climbs before they've even had a decision.

Greenwich isn't like other boroughs — and your street isn't like others in Greenwich

Greenwich contains a UNESCO World Heritage Site buffer zone around Maritime Greenwich. Properties within or near this area face a level of scrutiny that simply doesn't apply elsewhere in London. But it's not just the World Heritage buffer you need to think about.

Conservation areas, Article 4 directions, listed building status, flood zones — each one changes what's possible, what requires permission, and how likely approval is. They can apply to your property individually or in combination, and the combination matters.

The tricky part? Knowing you're in a conservation area is one thing. Knowing what that actually means for your specific project, on your specific street, based on what's been approved and refused nearby — that's something else entirely.

What similar projects on your street can tell you

Greenwich Council's planning history is full of decisions on extensions, loft conversions, outbuildings and more. Some get approved quickly. Others get refused — sometimes for reasons that aren't obvious from the rules alone.

The pattern of what's been approved and refused near you is one of the most useful signals available. It tells you whether your project type has traction locally, what objections tend to come up, and whether your property's specific mix of constraints is likely to work in your favour or against you.

That's the kind of insight WhatCanIBuild surfaces — not just the constraints that apply to your address, but what those constraints have meant for real applications on properties like yours.

So what will it actually cost you?

The honest answer is: it depends on your property. The £258 fee is real. So is the Planning Portal service charge. But the bigger costs — consultants, drawings, reports, resubmissions — depend on what your project needs and how straightforward your planning position actually is.

The best way to understand your specific situation before spending anything is to check your property first. WhatCanIBuild shows you what's been approved and refused near you, your approval odds for the project type you have in mind, and how your property's combination of constraints is likely to affect the outcome.