Southampton City Council fact sheet
Planning and building regulations
Submitting your building plans for approval to the council could not be easier. Below is a step-by-step guide to where to go, what information to provide and what happens next.
By submitting plans online you save time, you can track your application’s progress, it will save you money as you will not need to supply five printed copies of each plan and you can complete applications anytime.
Changing your property
There are two sets of rules governing what you can and cannot do to a property you own.
Planning permission
Planning permission covers what a building looks like and the impact it will have on the area. The rules are set by government and governed locally by the council’s development control team.
In the most general terms, if you are modifying the outside of a building, planning a new building or changing the use of an existing building from, for example, a home to a shop, you will usually need to submit plans for approval to the council’s development control team.
Building regulations
Building regulations are a set of national rules covering the standard of work carried out on a property and the council’s building control team will give approval for the work being carried out and issue a certificate on completion for the work, confirming that it meets building regulations.
If you carry out building work or repairs to your property including extensions, loft conversions, re-roofing, altering waste pipes and drains, internal alterations such as removing walls or partitions, electrical installations, window replacements and any work that affects the energy performance of your property you should contact the council’s building control team.
Before starting work
Before beginning any work on your property, you should submit plans describing the work that you plan to undertake. There is most times a fee charged for the process of getting planning permission or building regulations approval. But not all work needs approval and sometimes there is no fee. Please check with abuiding officer or planning officer first.
There is a lot of information available on the council’s website , www.southampton.gov.uk . You can also talk to a planning or building control officer (see contact details below).
Submitting plans
You need to supply enough information do that your intentions can be fully understood.
Planning permission
For planning consent, you need to supply detailed drawings of any modifications or new buildings; you can have these drawn up by an architect or a builder but if you feel that you can do-it-yourself then as long as the plans are drawn to a reasonable standard, that will be ok. Check with a planning officer first before you submit your plans If your application includes details of new buildings or extensions you need to supply a detailed location plan showing the dimensions and site boundaries in relation to neighbouring properties.
Building regulations
For building regulations approval you must supply plans (drawn to scale) that accurately show the existing building and proposed building works.
Submitting plans online
To get building regulations approval or planning permission for a planned change to your property, you can now submit plans online quickly and simply to Southampton City Council.
Below is an outline of the simple steps to submitting plans for planning permission.
Step 1 Go to www.planningportal.gov.uk
Step 2 Register as a user
Step 3 Make an application
Step 4 Attach documents
Step 5 Calculate fee and check application
Step 6 Payment and completion
You can view and track applications made online at www.southampton.gov.uk/publicaccess
Below is an outline of the simple steps to submitting plans for building control permission.
Step 1 Go to www.submitaplan.com
Step 2 Register as a user
Step 3 Make an application
Step 4 Attach documents
Step 5 Validate and submit
A building control surveyor will contact you regarding any amendments to your application including relevant charges.
Contact Name
Last updated: 7 December 2007