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.
A typical job runs in this order. You send the address, photographs and a plain brief, then use the free first consultation to test the fit. The practice surveys and measures, draws up concepts, submits the planning application and answers the council's queries. After permission comes technical design for building control, builder quotes priced against the same drawings, site checks as the walls go up, and a completion certificate to close the file.
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.
Start with Telford and Wrekin Council's own front door: its planning pages gather applications, advice, appeals and enforcement in one place, so a pre-application enquiry there can settle the route before you pay for drawings [7]. Say where the home stands, because Ironbridge Gorge is a World Heritage Site inscribed in 1986 and the borough keeps conservation areas with written appraisals, all searchable through the national heritage register [8]. Wellington, Dawley and Madeley send mostly extensions and loft conversions, Lawley's newer streets add boundary-sensitive side extensions, and Gorge cottages bring consent-led design. Building without a needed permission risks an enforcement notice ordering the work undone [4].
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.
Fee formats vary, and the RIBA names three: a percentage of the build cost, a lump sum for a defined scope, or a time charge for open-ended early work, with mixed formats across stages common [11]. Ask that disbursements such as planning and building-control fees, travel and printing sit itemised outside the design fee with VAT stated, since all three land on top [11]. Invoicing usually runs monthly or at the end of each work stage, and you may pause the commission at the end of any stage before committing to the next [11].
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.
A rear extension is the most quoted job in this round. The fee turns on whether you buy planning drawings alone or planning plus regulations and site checks, whether steel and drainage input comes through the practice or a separate engineer, and how many revisions the council's queries force. Planning-only is the lighter buy; full regulations detailing is the heavier one.
Loft work prices on complexity rather than size: headroom and stair position decide between a simple rooflight scheme and a dormer needing structure and boundary care. Bespoke new builds and barn conversions move most on plot unknowns, rural access, and the number of design iterations before submission. Where permission is the battle, the rural one-stop practices earn their place.
On format, expect a percentage of the build cost where scope is open, a lump sum where the brief is fixed, and a time charge for feasibility work, with disbursements and VAT sitting outside the design fee [11]. Homes that are listed or in a conservation area need more consents and detailing, so fees run higher there than for like-for-like work elsewhere [8] [11].
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.
Sends a single lump-figure quote with no breakdown of stages, drawings or disbursements.
Will not name the designer handling your job or put that name on the quote.