Planning an extension? Start with what applies to your house.

Enter your postcode and answer a short form. A free check shows the constraints it finds and the likely route. If you want to go on, there is a pre-application report and letter, then an application pack with everything but the drawings.

Homes reports are automated and are not professional advice.

Not open yet

England only. It will live at homes.plansimple.co.uk.

Illustration, not a real check. The result is automated and is not professional advice.

How it will work

Three stages, and you can stop after any of them. Each document says it is automated and is not professional advice.

  1. A free check

    No account needed. Enter your postcode, then mark your house on a map, because a postcode’s central point can land on the wrong side of a boundary. A short form asks what you plan to build:

    • rear, side or two-storey extension
    • loft or dormer
    • porch, garage or garden room
    • windows or cladding

    You see the constraints found and the likely route (permitted development, prior approval or planning permission), and why.

    Free

    Automated. Not professional advice.

  2. A pre-application report and letter

    A report on your project, and a letter to the council’s planning team naming the policies that apply. Each policy cited links to its source, with the date it was read.

    From about £49. Prices are not set.

    Automated. Not professional advice.

  3. An application pack

    Everything but the drawings:

    • planning statement
    • design and access statement
    • answers for the form
    • ownership certificate wording
    • fee guide and checklist
    • a guide to submitting it

    You add the drawings and submit it yourself. The council’s own fee is separate.

    From about £149. Prices are not set.

    Automated. Not professional advice.

What a report rests on depends on where you live

The North of England and much of the Midlands come first, with their local and neighbourhood plans read before anywhere else: the North East, Yorkshire and the Humber, the North West, and the councils listed below in the West and East Midlands. Elsewhere in England, reports rest on constraints and national policy, and say so.

What each report will draw on, by area
Source Councils we have read Elsewhere in England
Constraints Checked Checked
National policy Read Read
Local plan Read Not read yet. The report says so and links to the plan
Neighbourhood plan Read, where one is in force Not read yet

Read so far: 77 planning authorities across the North East (all 13, including the Northumberland National Park), Yorkshire and the Humber (Barnsley, Bradford, Calderdale, Doncaster, East Riding, Hull, Kirklees, Leeds, North Lincolnshire, North East Lincolnshire, North Yorkshire, Rotherham, Sheffield, Wakefield and York) the North West (the ten Greater Manchester councils, Liverpool, Sefton, Wirral, Knowsley, St Helens, Halton, Warrington, Cheshire East, Cheshire West and Chester, Preston, Lancaster, Blackpool and Blackburn with Darwen), the West Midlands (Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall, Wolverhampton, Stoke-on-Trent, Telford and Wrekin, Shropshire, Herefordshire, Worcester, Bromsgrove, Warwick, Stratford-on-Avon, Rugby, and Nuneaton and Bedworth) and the East Midlands (Derby, Leicester, Nottingham, Rushcliffe, Lincoln, Rutland, Chesterfield, and North and West Northamptonshire). The national parks other than Northumberland are not read yet.

Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are not covered yet.

How far to trust it

Homes reports are automated and are not professional advice. Only your council can decide an application. For a listed building, or anything you cannot afford to get wrong, talk to a qualified planner.

  • No planner has checked your report. A check by a qualified planner may be offered later. It is not available now.
  • “None found” does not mean “none exists”. National constraint data varies by council, so a report only ever says what it found, what was checked and where.
  • The route is worked out by rules, not AI. Permitted development will be worked out by tested rules in code. AI writes the words, from the facts already fixed.
  • Anything untraceable is flagged. A number or policy reference that is not in the facts is marked, so it can be looked at.

Where it stands

Not open yet

PlanSimple Homes is being built. The check, the reports and the prices on this page describe the plan, and may change. There is no list to join and nothing to buy today.

No planner has read a sample of its reports yet.