Associate MCIAT. 78 London projects led.
Specialism: building regulations + structural coordination for double-storey extensions and basement conversions.
Associate MCIAT leading building regulations packages and structural coordination for two-storey extensions and basement schemes.
A planning permission tells you that a building may exist in a given form. It says nothing about whether it can lawfully be built. That is the Building Regulations 2010, and it is a separate application to a separate body — either the local authority's building control team or an approved inspector.
The Full Plans route is the one we use on anything structural, because it gives a decision before work starts. Building control has five weeks to determine it, extendable to two months by agreement. The alternative, a building notice, carries no plan check at all: you find out your detail is wrong when an inspector sees it on site, with the work already built.
Two-storey rear extensions are where the technical and the planning constraints collide hardest. Permitted development caps a two-storey rear addition at 3m in depth and requires it to sit no closer than 7m to the rear boundary — a test most inner-London terraces fail outright, so the scheme goes in as a £548 householder application.
Structurally, removing the rear wall of a two-storey terrace transfers load that was carried down a masonry pier into a new steel frame, and that frame needs a padstone calculation, a deflection check and a fire-protection specification before building control will pass it.
Basement excavation is the one household operation where the neighbouring owner has statutory rights that bite before you start. Section 6 of the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 is engaged whenever you excavate within 3m of a neighbouring structure and go deeper than its foundations, and within 6m where a 45° line from the base of their footing would strike your excavation. Notice under section 6 must be served two months before work begins — against one month for a party structure notice under section 3.
Several London boroughs also run a dedicated basement policy requiring a structural method statement and a basement impact assessment at application stage. Our basement drawing package is fixed at £1.
Part A structural adequacy against the engineer's calculations; Part B fire safety, including the 4.5m rule that turns a second-floor loft into a protected stairway job; Part F ventilation extract rates (30 l/s in a kitchen over a hob, 15 l/s intermittent in a bathroom, 6 l/s in a WC); Part L fabric performance; and Part K protection from falling, collision and impact. A package that satisfies all five is a package that passes plan check first time.
Senior Technologist in a Wandsworth context: London Borough of Wandsworth (Wandsworth Council) runs 45 conservation areas including the Wandsworth Common Conservation Area and the Clapham Common West Conservation Area, and an Article 4 direction is in force there, so permitted development cannot be assumed. That decides how senior technologist is handled: £548 and 8 weeks for a Wandsworth householder application, or £274 for the Lawful Development Certificate that records senior technologist as lawful. The law behind senior technologist sits in the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, the GPDO 2015 and the Building Regulations 2010.
| Role | Associate MCIAT, Senior Technologist |
|---|---|
| Specialism | Building regulations, structural coordination |
| Typical scheme | Two-storey rear extensions, basements |
| Approval route | Full Plans, determined in 5 weeks |
| Fixed fee from | |
| Drawing turnaround | 18–24 working days |
Almost always, and they are independent of each other. Planning permission governs what the building looks like and how it affects neighbours; the Building Regulations 2010 govern whether it is structurally sound, fire-safe, ventilated and insulated. You can hold one without the other, and both are enforceable separately.
Five weeks from a valid submission, which building control may extend to two months with your written agreement. A building notice has no plan-check stage at all, which is why we do not recommend it for anything involving structural alteration.
A section 6 excavation notice needs two months' notice before work starts, so it is served early — leaving it until the contractor is booked is the single most common cause of a delayed basement start.
Pick a slot that suits you. No obligation and no sales pressure, just straight answers on your planning route.
