Anyone competent can redraw refused plans: the firm that drew them, a different drawing team, or us. What decides the second outcome is not who holds the pen but whether the new drawings answer every numbered reason on the decision notice. We redraw and resubmit a refused householder scheme for £645 drawings + £150 survey (£795 total), survey included, and the council's £548 fee is paid again, because England's free resubmission ended in December 2023.
On this page
- What does the refusal actually say?
- Should I redraw or appeal?
- Is there still a free resubmission after a refusal?
- Can I just send the council amended plans instead?
- Who should redraw the plans: the original designer or someone new?
- What does redrawing cost in London?
- How long will a resubmission take?
- Frequently asked questions
A refusal feels final. In London it is not common: across the capital's councils, 3,411 of 23,967 householder decisions between July 2025 and June 2026 were refusals (MHCLG live table PS2). Most refusals have a specific cause, and the documents already in your inbox tell you what it is.
What does the refusal actually say?
Two documents matter. The decision notice lists the reasons for refusal, usually numbered, each tied to a policy in the borough's local plan or the London Plan. The officer's report, published on the council's planning register next to your application, explains the thinking: what the officer measured, what they compared it with, and what they would have accepted.
Read the report before you call anyone. London refusals on extensions and lofts tend to fall into a few groups:
- Size and bulk: a rear extension too deep for a Victorian terrace's narrow plot, or a dormer that fills the roof slope instead of sitting within it.
- Neighbour impact: loss of light or outlook to the next-door rear window, a frequent point where London's closet wings sit a metre or two apart.
- Character: in one of the capital's conservation areas, materials, window patterns or roof forms that do not match the street.
- Missing information: no daylight test, no tree details, or drawings that do not show the neighbour's window at all.
The first three are design reasons. The last is a drawing reason, and it is the easiest to fix.
Should I redraw or appeal?
Ask one question of each reason: would a change to the drawings remove it? If the officer says the extension is 1.5 metres too deep, or the dormer should be set back from the eaves, a redrawn scheme answers it directly, and a fresh application is usually the shorter path. If the officer misread a policy, ignored a similar approved scheme on your street, or refused the principle of what you want, an appeal is the stronger route.
The deadlines differ. An appeal must be made within 12 weeks of the date on the decision letter (GOV.UK), costs nothing to file (GOV.UK), and is decided on the plans the council refused. A resubmission has no deadline but costs the council fee again. Our householder appeal cost post covers the appeal route in full; the rest of this post is about redrawing.
Is there still a free resubmission after a refusal?
No. England used to allow one free repeat application within 12 months of a refusal or withdrawal. The Explanatory Memorandum to SI 2023/1197 records that this "free go" was removed for applications made from 6 December 2023. A redrawn householder scheme now pays the full £548 fee (MHCLG fee table).
Plenty of advice online, including some councils' older pages, still promises the free second go. Budget for the fee. It changes the sums: an appeal has no fee but a long wait; a resubmission has a fee but a fresh eight-week clock.
Can I just send the council amended plans instead?
Only before the decision. The government's guidance says applicants can suggest changes while an application is being considered, that it is at the council's discretion whether to accept them, and that changes so significant as to materially alter the proposal need a new application (MHCLG, paragraph 061). Once the decision notice is issued, that door has closed; the refused application cannot be amended into a permission. If you are reading this before the decision and the officer has raised concerns, our post on amending drawings after council comments explains that route.
Who should redraw the plans: the original designer or someone new?
Either can. Consider three things.
Do the drawings match the house? If the refused set was drawn from an estate agent's plan or a quick tape measure, the redraw should start from a measured survey. A dimension that is wrong by 200mm can be the difference between an acceptable and an unacceptable depth beside a neighbour's window.
Did the first designer read the officer report the same way? If they think the officer was simply wrong, they may push you towards an appeal on a scheme you could fix by redrawing.
Can the new set show the change clearly? A good resubmission includes a short covering letter listing each refusal reason and the drawing that answers it, with the reduced depth or lowered ridge dimensioned on the plans. Officers read many applications; make the fix visible.
What does redrawing cost in London?
| Item | Who is paid | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Survey, existing and proposed drawings, application pack and submission | Us | £645 drawings + £150 survey (£795 total) |
| Householder application fee | Your council | £548 |
| Appeal instead of resubmission | Planning Inspectorate | No fee |
| Appeal statement, if you take that route | Us | From £425 |
Where we drew the refused scheme ourselves, tell us: the survey already exists, and we quote the redraw on what changes. Where another firm drew it, we start with a survey so that the new set is ours to stand behind.
How long will a resubmission take?
The drawing side usually runs about three weeks from the survey booking (our price list and FAQ). The council then has 8 weeks for a householder application unless you agree longer in writing (MHCLG). Speed varies by borough: Camden decided 129 of 212 householder applications (excluding prior approvals) within 8 weeks in the year to June 2026, the slowest share in London (MHCLG PS2). Your borough's figure is on its page under London.
Frequently asked questions
Can I resubmit exactly the same plans? You can, but the council is likely to refuse again for the same reasons. A resubmission is worth the fee only if it changes what the reasons point at.
Does a refusal stop me applying for something smaller? No. A refusal decides that scheme only. A smaller or differently shaped extension is a new application and is judged on its own plans.
Should I ask for pre-application advice before resubmitting? Sometimes. If the reasons are unclear or the officer report is thin, paid pre-application advice can confirm the direction before you redraw. If the report states what was wrong, the redraw can usually go straight in.
Will you promise that the redrawn scheme is granted? No. The council decides. We promise that each refusal reason is answered on the drawings and in the covering letter, and we tell you plainly if we think an appeal is the better route.
If the application goes through the Planning Portal, the Portal adds its own service charge: nothing, £99 or £149 including VAT, depending on the application type and complexity, paid to the Portal at submission and not normally refunded with a council fee (Ashford Borough Council, Planning Portal service charges, 11 September 2026). It is not ours and not the council's. Other submission routes exist; where your council accepts one without a charge, we can use it.
