How much does planning permission really cost in Slough?

Most homeowners in Slough start with the same assumption: planning permission costs £548. That's the householder application fee, it's correct, and it's almost completely beside the point. The real cost — in time, professional fees, and failed applications — depends on factors specific to your property that most people never think to check. WhatCanIBuild exists precisely because the gap between "what does planning permission cost" and "what will planning permission cost me" is wider than almost anyone expects.

The £548 is just the entry ticket

Submitting a householder planning application in Slough costs £548. But that fee is non-refundable whether your application is approved or refused. It also doesn't include the architect or planning consultant who draws up your proposals, the pre-application advice you might need beforehand, or the re-submission if your first attempt fails. Add in a Planning Portal service charge on top of the application fee itself, and the cost of getting permission — not just applying for it — starts to look very different from the headline figure. Most homeowners don't realise how quickly the ancillary costs stack up before they've even had a decision.

What your postcode doesn't tell you

Slough Borough Council covers a surprisingly varied area. Parts of the borough sit within Green Belt land, which carries restrictions that go well beyond standard planning rules. Slough also has five conservation areas — neighbourhoods where what looks like a straightforward extension or outbuilding can require full planning permission rather than falling under permitted development. Around 105 listed buildings are recorded across the borough, and the rules for those properties (and sometimes the properties nearby) operate on an entirely different basis.

Here's what trips most people up: being outside a conservation area doesn't mean your property is unaffected by one. An Article 4 direction can remove permitted development rights from properties that aren't listed, aren't in a conservation area, and look completely ordinary from the street. Whether any of these apply to your specific address — and how they interact with each other — isn't something you can reliably work out from a postcode alone.

The cost of getting it wrong

A refused application costs you the £548 fee plus all the professional fees to prepare it. A project built without the right permission can cost far more — enforcement action, retrospective applications, and in some cases, removal of the work. The typical decision time in Slough is 8 weeks, but that clock only starts once you've submitted a valid application with the right fee and documentation. A rejected submission resets everything.

The projects that cause the most expensive problems are often the ones homeowners were most confident about — the loft conversion on a road where everyone else has done one, the rear extension that "definitely doesn't need permission." What was true for your neighbour's property may not be true for yours.

What you actually need to know before you spend anything

Before committing to professional fees, architect drawings, or an application, the best way to understand your real position is to check what's actually been approved and refused near you — not just what the rules say in theory. WhatCanIBuild shows you approval patterns for your specific project type in your area, how your property's combination of constraints affects your chances, and what similar projects on nearby streets actually achieved. That's the information that changes your decision — not the application fee figure.

If you're planning a project in Slough and haven't checked your specific property yet, WhatCanIBuild is the best place to start before you spend a penny.