How we chose
We started from the nineteen architect and design practices the maps show across Telford and its surrounding villages. Scheme memberships were sourced from the ARB register, the RIBA directory and the CIAT website, each firm's own site and its Google record [1] [2] [3]. Each business must first meet our basic checks: it is who it says it is, it is trading today and can be reached, and anything it must hold by law, including honest use of the architect title, is in place. Ten firms make the ranked table. What customers say counts most toward the score, then qualifications, then whether the firm has traded two years or more and whether its cover is stated, then pricing clarity and website detail. All evidence is dated early September 2026.
How to hire
Match the person to the job first. An architect designs your scheme and takes it through planning and building regulations, the right call for extensions, lofts, new builds and adaptations. A chartered architectural technologist draws and details straightforward residential jobs, often for a fixed fee, while a combined planning-and-surveying practice suits rural plots where permission is the hard part. When you first enquire, say which rooms, what you want to build and whether the home is listed.
Check the register before you book. Ask for the ARB registration number and type it into the search on the ARB register, which finds architects by number, name or company, then check the name that comes back matches the business you are hiring [1]. A logo on a website proves nothing on its own. For a chartered practice, look the firm up in the RIBA directory, which lists accredited Chartered Practices [2]; for a technologist, use the CIAT website's check-a-member and find-a-technologist tools [3].
Learn whether your job needs permission. Many small extensions fall under permitted development, while larger ones and most work on flats, listed buildings and homes in conservation areas need a full application, and GOV.UK explains which route your project takes [4]. Applications go in through the Planning Portal or straight to Telford and Wrekin Council [5] [7]. Say in your enquiry who will prepare the drawings, who submits the application and whether the fee is included in the quote.
Plan for building regulations as well as planning. Most extensions and conversions need regulations approval on top of any permission, with drawings showing structure, insulation, drainage and means of escape, and GOV.UK sets out how approval works [6]. If your home is listed or sits in a conservation area, extra consent applies, so check the council's heritage pages before you agree a scope [8]. Tell your designer the age and status of the house up front.
Get two or three itemised written quotes on the same scope, so you compare like with like [10]. Each quote should name the stages included, measured survey, concept design, planning drawings, regulations drawings and site checks, the fee basis for each stage, the start date and how long each stage takes. One Telford practice offers fixed fees for many job types and another a written breakdown quotation, so ask for that format by name. Treat an outlier, far above or below the rest, as a question rather than a bargain.
Close the paperwork loop before the builders arrive. Your file should hold the planning decision notice, the building-control completion certificate and the full set of approved drawings, which you will need when you sell or remortgage. Ask whether the quote includes VAT on top, since published figures rarely say, and agree payment in stages tied to drawings delivered rather than weeks passed. If anything arrives uncertified or unapproved, pause and ask for the missing paper before you pay the balance.
Pricing
As of autumn 2026, the fixed costs around the design work run like this: a householder planning application for a single home costs £258, or £509 where it covers two or more homes [9]. Building-control charges are set job by job in the council's published schedule [7]. None of the ten ranked practices publishes example rates for its own services, so the written quote is the price document that matters.
Scope moves the fee most: a planning-drawings-only package costs less than planning plus regulations drawings plus site supervision, and measured surveys, structural input and several design revisions each add their share. Listed or conservation-area homes need extra drawings and consent, which lengthens the job [8]. Fixed-fee packages suit straightforward extensions, while unusual plots and full design-to-completion appointments are usually quoted to the job, so ask which format your quote follows.
Use the free first consultations on offer across the table to test value before you commit: several ranked practices open with one, so arrive with drawings of the house, a clear brief and the same questions each time. Ask whether every figure includes VAT, since only one ranked practice publishes its VAT number and the rest say nothing either way. Get the scope in writing before work starts, exactly which stages, drawings and submissions are included, which disbursements sit outside the fee, and what changes the price if the council asks for more. Agree payment stages against drawings delivered and keep every quote, invoice and approval together [10].
Red flags
Uses the architect title but gives no registration number you can check on the ARB register [1].
Quotes for drawings without visiting, measuring, or asking for dimensions and photographs of the house.
Promises your permission is certain before the council has seen the scheme.
Starts design work with no written scope, fee basis, or payment stages.
Will not say what professional indemnity cover sits behind the advice.
Asks for the full fee in cash up front, with no written terms.
Dodges questions about a refusal instead of explaining the route to a revised scheme.
The bottom line
For most Telford homes, start with VB Architecture: a registered architect for the whole residential job, from sketch to building-regulations drawings, with a free first meeting. Contact runs by email and form with no phone number published, so set out your address, your plans and your timescale in the first message.
Match the firm to the job: Foster for bespoke homes and adaptations, M T C where planning and surveying come with the design, Archimetrix where a fixed fee matters most, Focus for a grand design discussed in person, Pleydell Smithyman for a rural business, and Tony Rowland for traditional or listed work. Then get two written quotes on the same scope and check the registration number yourself before you agree anything.
Corrections and business responses
Tell us what needs checking, or ask to claim a listing and reply to an assessment.