Lawful development certificate · London Borough of Hackney
Lawful development certificate in Hackney, from £695 fixed
Hackney's Brownswood, Well Street and Beck Road conservation area directions only took effect in May 2025, and a fourth covers four named streets in Shacklewell Green. Before we draw a certificate of lawfulness we check which rights your address has lost, so you apply by the right route the first time.
Householder application fee, paid to your council at submission.
Plus the Planning Portal's own charge if the application goes through the Portal: up to £149 including VAT, depending on the application type, and some types have none (source).
Get this fee in writingor email hello@fixedfeeplans.co.uk
No obligation. Nothing is sent until you ask; your enquiry comes to us and nowhere else.
Fixed fee, in writing
Tell us about your project
Send the postcode and what you want to build, and add photos or old plans if you have them. We reply with the fee in writing and the payment stages set out in full.
What Hackney Council asks of a lawful development certificate
From the council's Article 4 Directions (adopted Brownswood and Well Street made 9 May 2024; Beck Road 28 May 2024; each effective one year later).
- Hackney made non-immediate Article 4 Directions for Brownswood and Well Street conservation areas on 9 May 2024, effective 9 May 2025, and for Beck Road on 28 May 2024, effective 28 May 2025. (source, checked 25 October 2026)
- Hackney says those three directions remove permitted development rights covering alterations within the land around a house, small work and minor construction, and installing renewable energy systems, and that the individual directions list which rights are removed. (source, checked 25 October 2026)
- The Shacklewell Green direction (made 30 August 2018, effective 22 October 2019) covers April Street 1-14, Perch Street 1-25, Seal Street 1-36, Shacklewell Lane 97-129 (odd) and Milton House Mansions 1-18, not the whole conservation area. (source, checked 25 October 2026)
- It removes Schedule 2 Part 1 Classes A to H (enlargements, roof alterations, porches, outbuildings, hard surfaces, chimneys and flues) and Part 2 Classes A to C (gates and walls, accesses, exterior painting) of the 2015 Order. (source, checked 25 October 2026)
- Hackney's page says these directions are separate from its change-of-use directions, and sends owners in the St Mark's and De Beauvoir conservation areas to those areas' own pages for their works controls. (source, checked 25 October 2026)
What Hackney lawful development certificate drawings have to show
A Hackney certificate begins with the address. For a house on Seal Street or Perch Street, the Shacklewell Green direction takes out the extension, loft, porch and outbuilding rights altogether, so there is nothing for a certificate to confirm and we draw a planning application. In Brownswood, Well Street and Beck Road we read the individual direction to see which classes were taken out in May 2025 before choosing the route.
Where the house sits outside any direction, the certificate pack is the usual one: a site plan, existing and proposed plans and elevations, and the permitted development dimensions marked on them. Hackney's terraces are often narrow, so we measure the original rear wall and the boundary carefully, because the depth limits are tested from the original house.
Hackney: 415 householder decisions
What it costs in Hackney
- Certificate of lawfulness: from £545 drawings + £150 survey (£695 total), plus £274 to Hackney Council.
- Half the equivalent planning fee for a proposed use certificate.
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Answers
Hackney lawful development certificate questions
When did the Hackney Brownswood Article 4 direction start?
Which Shacklewell Green streets in Hackney are affected by the Article 4 direction?
Can I still get a certificate of lawfulness in a Hackney conservation area?
Start with £150
Your fixed fee is already on this page.
Tell us the postcode and what you want to build. We confirm the fee in writing and book the survey.