Building Control Fees Calculator

LABC is your local council's Building Control team. An Approved Inspector is a private company licensed to carry out the same role. Both check your plans against Building Regulations and inspect the work at key stages. The practical differences are speed and style. Local councils can take four to six weeks to process a full plans application and their turnaround on inspections varies by workload. Private inspectors tend to be faster — sometimes significantly so on plan checks — and many are more flexible about same-day inspection requests. The trade-off is cost: private inspectors typically charge 10-20% more than LABC. On a £100,000 extension the difference is £150-£300. For most residential projects I use LABC. On commercial or tight-programme jobs where delays cost money, Approved Inspectors earn their premium.

Full plans approval through LABC takes five to eight weeks on average, though some boroughs are faster. If you submit a building notice instead of full plans, there's no plan check — you just notify the council and inspections happen as work progresses. Building notices are simpler but riskier because you don't get pre-approval of the design. On loft conversions and extensions I always go full plans so the structural details are signed off before any work starts. Inspections happen at key stages — foundations, DPC, structural, first fix, final — and your inspector needs 24-48 hours notice for most. Final completion certificates can take four to eight weeks after the last inspection. Don't sign off on a kitchen extension sale without the certificate in hand.

No. Building Control checks compliance with Building Regulations — structural safety, insulation levels, fire egress, drainage, electrical standards. It does not assess whether the design is any good, whether the kitchen layout works, or whether the glazing proportions look right. That's architecture, not regulation. I've seen plenty of extensions that sailed through Building Control and are still ugly, impractical spaces. Building Regulations sets the floor — minimum standards for safety and energy performance. Everything above the floor is down to whoever designed the project. If you want design quality reviewed, you need a planning consultant, an architect, or us to look at it before work starts.