Planning permission Isn't Approval to Build

“You’ve got your planning permission. Congratulations. You think you're ready to build? You’re not.”

I see this mistake constantly:

Clients celebrate their planning approval like it’s the green light to start digging foundations.

But here’s the truth:

Planning permission isn’t permission to build.

It’s permission to pursue a concept — not to construct a building.

And if you ignore that distinction? You’ll burn time, money, and credibility — fast.

What Planning Approval Actually Means

Planning permission gives you approval for:

• The idea: height, scale, use, massing, and appearance in principle.

• How it fits into a townscape or street scene.

• Policy compliance: local plans, zoning, etc.

  
  

But it does not:

• Approve your structural approach.

• Confirm your drainage scheme works.

• Check for fire compliance, insulation values, acoustic performance, or M&E coordination.

• Validate buildability or construction sequencing.

  
  

In fact, many planning applications are based on incomplete or purely conceptual information.

Yet developers take that approval and run — into legal contracts, materials orders, and groundworks — before the real design has even started.

That’s not bold. It’s reckless.

The Post-Planning Gap

Between planning and construction is where most of the work actually happens:

🔧 Technical Design:

• Coordinating structural, M&E, envelope, acoustics, fire strategy

• Meeting Part L, Part B, Part M — all the Building Regs

• Finalising materials, wall build-ups, and junctions

  
  

📑 Building Control:

• Submitting full construction information

• Getting sign-off on a real, buildable scheme

  
  

🔁 Value Engineering (done right):

• Not cutting corners — but finding efficiencies with the architect still at the wheel

  
  

📐 Production Information:

• Drawings, schedules, specifications

• Contractor pricing packages that reduce ambiguity and risk

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Without these?

You are not building. You are gambling.

What goes wrong when you skip this stage

Let’s talk consequences.

Real example: A developer gets planning.

They go straight to site.

No full design.

No coordinated drawings.

No consultant sign-off.

And then:

• The structure clashes with the M&E

• The wall buildup is too thick and eats into GIA

• The drainage doesn’t comply with Building Control

• The steel takes 10 weeks to revise and reorder

• And the whole programme slips by 6 months

  
  

Financial impact?

• Extra prelims

• Redesign fees

• Delay damages

• Worst of all: investor confidence lost

  
  

All because someone thought “Planning Approved” meant “Go Time.”

The Architects Role Post-Planning

This is exactly where the architect’s leadership becomes invaluable.

We:

• Lead the design coordination across disciplines.

• Translate the planning drawings into fully compliant construction information.

• Spot risks, track changes, and preserve the intent of the scheme.

• Package the information in a way that protects the client — legally, financially, and practically.

  
  

Good architects don’t stop at planning.

They accelerate after planning — because that’s when decisions get real.

So if you’re a developer or private client, and you’ve just got planning:

Celebrate — briefly.

Then get your architect properly re-engaged.

Because the most expensive thing you can build… is a mistake.

To sum up...

If you’ve ever been burned by jumping the gun post-planning — or if you want to avoid it on your next project — subscribe now.

This blog is here to save you from preventable disasters.

And if you’re still wondering who should be leading your project?

Read my other blog: “Architect vs Contractor — Who’s Really In Charge?”