Pre-Application planning advice

The London Borough of Sutton offers a paid-for pre-application planning advice service for prospective applicants and businesses. We encourage all applicants to seek advice before submitting an application and offer a range of services to help lead to a successful application.

Please read our Pre-Application Charging Schedule (2023) to see the advice options we currently offer.

Once you have chosen the service you would like to purchase please submit your application pack by email to developmentmanagement@sutton.gov.uk and make payment via our Planning Fees Pay-For-It option. If you would like to pay by BACS you will need to email us in advance for payment details.

Upon receipt of both your application pack and the required fee, a case officer will make contact within 5 working days to arrange a time for the meeting. Case officers will then have 14 days from the date of the meeting to issue their formal advice letter for Categories A, B, C and D and 21 days for Categories E, F and G.

The advice provided will include a discussion on the merits of the proposal, including an assessment of the positive and negative features of the scheme, and will outline any changes that need to be made to the scheme to make it acceptable if necessary. However, the advice offered should be used as a helpful guide for the submission of acceptable schemes, and is not a binding decision of the Council, nor should the advice letter be viewed as a pre-determination.

Pre-Application Confidentiality

Please be aware that any pre-application advice given is likely to be made publicly available as part of the online documents if we receive a related planning application, subject to commercial confidentiality rules. If you consider that any information contained in your pre-application submission, or any of the advice you received, should not be made available to the public upon receipt of a related planning application the Council will need to be notified of this in advance of a full application, and the reasons why you consider this information should be exempt.