Planning By Design Reviews 

Helpful, professional, and responsive throughout. The team clearly explained the planning constraints and provided a detailed, site-specific appraisal. When circumstances changed, they were helpful and adaptable where possible and communicated transparently. I would recommend Planning By Design and would use them again.

I found out them over the Internet and used them for my retrospective planning application for rear garden fence height. My fence was raised from little over 1 meter high to 2.4m high from the rear garden floor level. it thus exceeded the permitted development rules and i received a letter from council as someone complained to them about it. I decided to make an application to keep the fence. Having enquired from multiple Companies, this was the only one who gave me hope as they did my planning appraisal first and my town planner Aaron Basi told me that my project will likely succeed due to the circumstances of my property, my reasons to raise the height, and the natural slope that exists in my garden and street etc and all this can be explained to the council easily to get the permission. Aaron Basi seemed very nice over the phone and gave me lot of confidence and hope that he will explain all these points to the council properly in his planning statement as well as in follow up communication and will likely get me the permission. So, I decided to go ahead with them. They sent me the invoice to pay in full so they can draft my planning statement and start working on the planning application. I paid the invoice by bank transfer so they can immediately start the work and waving off my 14 days cancellation. They asked me for photographs and I sent them nearly 100 pictures and videos of my rear garden before and after the fence height was raised. They did the planning statement and prepared the application and made the drawings and we filed the application with high hopes. The council officer came for site visit and sent his first response afterwards. He mistakenly assumed that alongside raising the fence height, we had built up a new patio without permission. That patio was already built up in the property when I purchased it. Aaron Basi instead of explaining this to the council and pointing out the officer's misunderstanding, he instead tried to blame it on me and said that he was not aware that I had also built a Patio. He could clearly see as I had sent them more than 100 pictures & videos and he seemed to have not paid any attention to my provided information and evidence. He was such an incompetent person that I felt left alone on this matter. I had to craft the response myself so he could send back to the Council officer and explain that this patio was pre-existing. I again had to send lots of pictures & PDFs as evidence. The council officer eventually agreed by seeing my previous pictures and left the patio matter. However, the officer gave his mind over the fence height and said he will refuse the application and asked us to reduce the height of the fence to 2.0m which is equal to permitted development rules. This Town planner instead of doing his real job at that time and explaining the situation to the officer like he said to me at the stage of appraisal, left it all on me and started preparing me to accept and do the compromise. Aaron did not do anything further or added any value and started behaving like a postman; passing officer's emails to me to take my opinion on it and my own crafted response so he could send it back. He was engaged on this to work proactively, add value, give suggestions and do it all for me. Instead he behaved exactly like a postman delivering letters between two parties. I felt extremly helpless in this all situation. I repented all the time having hired them & paying them for my application. I had to do all the research and find material and words to respond to the council officer all the time in order to salvage the situation. This extremely incompetent town planner literally added no value in it. I felted trapped in this situation. After trying my best and even sending direct replies to the council officer as Aaron was not offering any help, I had to compromise and agreed to council officer. New revised designs were prepared for 2.0m height and council approved the application. The decision came and council gave the conditional approval to my application to being down the fence to 2.0m of height. It essentially means that if my builder had raised the fence to 2.0m instead of 2.4m, it would have been fine due to permitted rules and i would not even have to do any application and incur £1600 charges for this company plus £347 council fee. My nearly £2k is wasted, alongside months of time, endless anxiety feeling helpless with them. Their business model is like this, they do planning appraisal, hype up customers and give them hopes, even when I had told Aaron that other companies have told me that my applicant will not pass. Even at urgent times, The contact is only through emails, despite aaron assured me in his appraisal call that he would be available for calls. They charge for every phone call. I wanted to write more but due to limit i have end it.

Planning by Design dealt with my planning application in a friendly and professional way. They responded helpfully and quickly to any queries. Although the outcome wasn’t very promising initially, in the end the application was approved unconditionally. A great result. My thanks to Mislav and his colleagues at Planning by Design.

Excellent all round service where we were kept fully informed throughout the process.
Our application for a loft conversion and rear extension was initially deemed invalid by our council. Once Planning by Design took over the process on our behalf they produced excellent professional drawings and a comprehensive Design and Access statement that helped us acquire planning permission within the required timescales.
I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend their services.

We had to apply for planning permission for alterations as we lived in a conservation area. Planning by design helped us through the whole process and made it easy and stress-free, and we were approved today. Their work was outstanding, thorough, and they communicated well throughout the whole process. I highly recommend them!

Planning By Design (PBD) were able to help me decide whether or not to proceed with a planning application to convert my existing office space into a residential flat.
Rather than pay a surveyor £2000 plus vat, which he had quoted for a pre-application advice meeting with the local authority, I was able to pay only a mere £120 to PBD to find out that my application was highly unlikely to be successful !
I thoroughly recommend them.

Great service from start to finish, excellent attention to detail and communication.

I used planning for design and found their service to be of a very high standard. Helped us get permission for a children's home.
Would definitely recommend

After receiving a refusal on my planning application, I felt completely overwhelmed. Planning by Design stepped in and made the whole appeal process so much less stressful. They were patient, knowledgeable, and incredibly supportive from start to finish.
I’m very grateful for their help and would highly recommend them to others.

Planning by design is a very good company to work with. The team are very helpful, supportive, informative and quick to respond to questions. They are very open and honest, no hidden agenda.

Preplanning assessment was excellent- the advise was clear, meaning we know there is a good likelihood of ourcscheme getting planning permission. Quote was also clear and detailed.

We had an excellent experience with Planning By Design.
Their service was fast, efficient and professional.
Their advice was honest and explained thoroughly to us, we were encouraged to ask questions so didn’t feel rushed, and this was also followed up with a full feasibility report.
Would definitely use their services in the future, great value.

I had an excellent experience working with Planning by Design for a conversion of existing garage and erection of a first floor extension above the garage for a room. Their professionalism and attention to detail were evident throughout the process, and the architectural drawings were prepared to an exceptionally high standard and ultimately approved without issue.

A special mention must go to Josh, who showed remarkable patience and persistence in working with the council. He handled the back-and-forth with determination, never giving up until the approvals were secured. Alongside him, Paulina, the architect, worked tirelessly and closely with Josh to refine the drawings and ensure every detail was right. Their collaboration was outstanding and led to a brilliant outcome.

This combination of technical excellence and genuine commitment made the whole journey smooth and reassuring. I would highly recommend Planning by Design to anyone seeking reliable, high-quality architectural services backed by a brilliant team that truly cares about delivering results.

Thank you to the team, once again.

Excellent company, sorted all the drawings for my new build and dealt with the council on my behalf. I would highly recommend Planning by Design.

Really good experience - quick and proactive. Easy to talk with their 'expert' regarding our building project. They soon sent a detailed response to the initial questions and gave a comprehensive quote for the next steps which really helped :)

We were unsure as to how best to approach our planning application as we were doing it for the first time. Planning by Design guided us through the whole process, they responded promptly with expert advice and explanation throughout. The document submitted to the council was very professionally compiled and presented and when the council emailed Planning by Design with questions or requests their emails were quickly forwarded to us with a note setting out exactly what was required. Planning by Design delivered an excellent, personable, value for money, professional service promptly. A successful one too as we obtained our planning permission. We will certainly now use them for our building control drawings. Recommended.

My advice to anyone reading this. Just stay away. I wish I’d read the reviews before paying. Process hasn’t even finished yet and already it’s been very costly which they fail to mention to you. Want to speak to your architect? More money. Want your architect to come out to your property? More money. Submit application? More money. This has been very stressful and I haven’t even mentioned half of it. The 1 star reviews are real.

Great service , simple to deal with, got all my planning passed for my Cabin Airbnb

I found Planning by Design really friendly and helpful throughout the process. They took the time to understand my situation and gave clear, balanced advice without any pressure. Even though I didn’t go ahead with any further work, they helped me make the right decision for my circumstances and I really appreciated their honesty and guidance. Would happily recommend them for their professionalism and genuine approach.

We used Planning By Design to plan an extension (permitted development) to a domestic dwelling.

I WOULD NOT RECCOMMEND THIS COMPANY

They do not make in person visits as default and expect you to make all your own measurements. These should be done by a professional with the proper (laser) equipment - no matter how good you think you are this should be done by the person drawing the plans for accuracy and accountability.

They do not take account of building regs or drainage/foundation requirements in their initial planning stages, even though these can have a fundamental impact on the overall design.

They offer paid incentives for positive reviews (£20 amazon vouchers), when we questioned this policy they decided to "review our account" and tried to charge us an extra £200 for "design changes" - all of which were actually their errors.

In our case, we got our permitted development permission, but we are having to go through everything again with a local designer, and consider more accurate measurements, details that were missed, and things like utility requirements.

If we had just gone with a local architect/planner in the first place we could have got more accurate plans, and considered all the complicating factors as we decided what we wanted.

Even if it costs more it is better to go with a local professional who knows the area and will visit the site as default. They can ensure their plans are accurate and talk you through any potential complications.

I feel like I wasted my money and time by going with planning by design, yes I got the permissions required, but nothing was looked at properly or in detail by professionals.

I have learnt from my expensive mistake, make sure you don't make the same mistake!