How we chose
We started from every planning practice our researchers could find across Telford — nine in all — then matched each at Companies House and read its website for services, areas and terms. Professional standing was sourced from the RTPI directory of planning consultants and the RICS member and firm registers, alongside each firm's website [6] [10]. 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 is in place. Two firms met all three. What customers say counts most toward the score — the star rating itself, since beyond a handful of reviews volume adds nothing — then professional standing, 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
Start by checking whether you need permission at all. Many small jobs fall under permitted development, but those rights shrink inside the borough's eight conservation areas and disappear for some alterations inside the Severn Gorge, where an Article 4 Direction applies [4]. The council's own check page points you to the Planning Portal guidance and its pre-application service for a straight answer [1]. A consultant earns its keep here: send the address, a photo and a sketch of what you want, and ask which route — permitted development, householder application, lawful development certificate or listed building consent — fits your street.
The first conversation sets the route. Expect questions about ownership, the plot history and anything the council has refused before, plus a look at the Local Plan policies that will decide your case. Telford officers weigh each application against the Telford and Wrekin Local Plan, national policy and any neighbourhood plan for your area, alongside amenity, highways, ecology, trees and heritage [2]. A decent consultant names the policies that help you and the ones that hurt, before quoting a fee. Vague reassurance at this stage is worth less than one named policy.
Serious schemes should pass through pre-application advice before anything is drawn properly. The council offers free verbal advice on householder principles, paid written advice with input from its technical specialists, and workshops for larger sites; residents inside the Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Site can book a free thirty-minute surgery [1]. The warning on the council's own page is blunt: skip this step and officers may decide your application without giving you a chance to amend it, which means paying for a second application [1]. Ask your consultant to draft the enquiry and to attend any workshop with you.
Heritage shapes more Telford jobs than newcomers expect. Wellington has its own conservation area, and the Severn Gorge conservation area covers Ironbridge and the Gorge villages with an Article 4 Direction on top, so even minor alterations can need permission there [4]. The council publishes a residents' guide for Gorge households and appraisals for each area explaining what officers protect [4]. Tell your consultant on day one if your street sits in any of the eight areas or near a listed building, and ask what extra drawings or statements that triggers.
Check standing through the registers that matter for this trade. The RTPI directory lists only chartered members and legal associates, searchable by location and specialism, and chartered planners answer to an independent code of conduct [6]. RICS runs its own member and firm search showing name, membership number and regulatory history [10]. Planning consultancy has no mandatory registration, so treat a directory listing as evidence of standing rather than a licence to trade, and ask what the letters after a name actually stand for. Mid West shows RICS regulated status; Apogee shows no entry on any register checked.
Get the quote in writing with the scope spelled out. It should name the route, the documents included — drawings, design and access statement, heritage statement, submission and responses to officer questions — and the fee basis, fixed or hourly, with stages. Council fees sit outside the consultant's fee: a householder application costs five hundred and forty-eight pounds plus the Portal service charge, and written pre-application advice carries its own council charge [3] [5]. Ask whether VAT is added, what surveys are excluded, and what a refusal costs you — a revised submission or an appeal is a new instruction, not a free extra.
Once submitted, the council checks the fee first: get it wrong and officers contact you within five working days, and an application that stays invalid after twenty working days is withdrawn with a fifteen per cent handling charge kept back [2]. Consultees get three weeks to comment, and most householder cases are decided within eight weeks of validation [2]. Your consultant should track the case online, answer officer questions fast, and warn you early if conditions or a refusal look likely rather than going quiet. Agree who pays for discharge of conditions before the decision lands.
At the end, keep the decision notice, the approved plans and every condition discharge with your deeds — buyers and future applications will ask for them. Conditions must be formally discharged before you build what they cover. If officers refuse, you can revise and resubmit or appeal to the Planning Inspectorate, which runs a dedicated householder route and decides costs only where one side behaved unreasonably [7]. Either route needs fresh evidence and a fresh fee agreement, so settle that with your consultant before the refusal letter cools.
Pricing
As of autumn 2026, the council fees are fixed nationally and rise with inflation each April. A householder application costs £548, works within the garden boundary such as outbuildings or walls cost £272, and a lawful development certificate for proposed works costs £274 [5]. Listed building consent carries no application fee, and Telford officers point you to the Planning Portal calculator to check your figure before you file [3] [5]. Paying through the Portal adds a service charge of £75.83 plus VAT on fees over £100 [5].
As of autumn 2026, published guides put a design and access statement at £300–£800 and full management of a planning application at £1,000–£3,000 [8]. Simpler householder jobs often come in toward £2,000 all-in for the consultant's share, while contested cases and appeals start around £2,500 and rise with the evidence needed [9]. Treat any figure as a starting point: your site, not the guide, sets the price. Appeal preparation guides range from £2,000 to more than £5,000 for the consultant alone [8].
Drawings and supporting reports sit on top. Published guides price single-storey extension drawings at £1,000–£2,500, with technicians cheaper than architects for straightforward jobs [9]. A heritage statement for a conservation-area home runs £500–£1,500, ecology surveys £300–£1,000 and tree reports £300–£800 [8]. Gorge and conservation-area briefs almost always need at least one of these, so budget for it from the start. Ask your consultant to name every likely report in the quote, not after validation.
What moves the number most is complexity, not size alone. Heritage constraints, ecology or drainage questions, neighbour objections needing revised drawings, and the jump from written appeal to hearing all add professional time. Access matters too: a remote farm building with no drawings on record costs more to survey than a Lawley semi with plans on file. Fixed fees suit standard jobs; hourly billing suits open-ended fights — ask which you are buying.
Whatever the shape, get four lines in writing before work starts: the scope, the fee and whether VAT is added, the disbursements such as council fees and the Portal charge, and the payment stages. Ask what happens to the fee if you withdraw, if the council refuses, or if extra reports appear mid-case. A consultant who answers those three questions cleanly is usually easy to work with.
Red flags
Quotes a fixed fee without asking for the site address or seeing what you want to build.
Promises permission, or a win on appeal, before reading the policies that decide your case.
Claims chartered status you cannot find when you search the RTPI directory yourself [6].
Will not put the scope, fee basis and payment stages in writing before starting.
Asks for the full fee in cash up front, with no written terms to point to.
Says conservation-area or Article 4 limits do not apply without checking the council's maps [4].
Files the application with the fee unpaid or short, then bills you for the validation delay.
Goes quiet after a refusal instead of laying out resubmission against appeal with costs.
Adds surveys and reports mid-job that were missing from the original quote.
The bottom line
For most Telford homeowners, start with Mid West Planning. It covers the full route from first advice to appeal, carries RICS regulated status, and opens with a free telephone consultation, which is a strong package for an extension, a conversion or a rural edge case. Send a clear brief with the address, what you want to build and a photo or two, and ask what route it would take.
Choose Apogee when your site tangles planning with utilities or land questions, since that combined desk is what it is built for. Whatever you pick, get the scope, the fee basis and the stages in writing before work starts, and keep the council's decision notice with your deeds once permission lands.
Corrections and business responses
Tell us what needs checking, or ask to claim a listing and reply to an assessment.