Planning permission granted: what happens next before building work can start?

From planning consent to construction: what clients need to have in place before works start

Planning consent is an important project milestone, but it is only one part of getting a project ready for construction.

For clients delivering schools, housing, healthcare, community, workplace, heritage and other property projects, the period between planning approval and works starting is often where statutory requirements, technical design, consultant responsibilities, procurement, cost and programme need to be brought together.

Whether the project involves new build, refurbishment or work to an existing occupied building, starting construction before these strands are sufficiently coordinated can create avoidable risk, delay and additional cost.

So, what should clients be considering once planning consent has been secured?

This article relates principally to projects in England and provides general guidance. The requirements for individual projects will vary.

1. Review the planning consent - including the conditions

The starting point should be the planning decision notice and the approved information.

Planning conditions may require further details to be submitted to and approved by the local planning authority. These can relate to matters such as materials, landscaping, external details, environmental requirements, construction arrangements or other aspects of the development.

Some are pre-commencement conditions, meaning that they need to be addressed before development starts.

It is therefore useful to establish a planning conditions tracker early, identifying what information is required, who is responsible for providing it and when it needs to be submitted.

On larger projects, a seemingly minor outstanding condition can have programme implications if it is discovered too close to the intended start date.

Clients should also check the period within which the planning permission must be implemented.

2. Move from planning design to coordinated technical design

Planning drawings communicate what is proposed. They are not necessarily the information from which the project should be constructed.

The next stage is usually to develop and coordinate the technical design.

Depending on the project, this may require input from the architect, structural engineer, building services engineers, fire consultant, access consultant, landscape designer and other specialists. Contractor-designed elements and specialist supplier information may also need to be incorporated.

The important issue for the client is not simply whether each consultant has produced their individual package, but whether the design works together as a coordinated whole.

Interfaces between different designers are often where gaps occur. Who designs the interface between structure and façade? Who is responsible for builders’ work associated with services? Have accessibility requirements been carried through from the planning concept into the detailed design? Who is responsible for specialist elements that will only be designed after contractor appointment?

Clear scopes of service and a design responsibility matrix can help make these responsibilities visible.

3. Establish the Building Regulations and building control strategy

Planning and Building Regulations are separate regimes.

The client therefore needs to establish how compliance with the Building Regulations will be demonstrated and which building control route applies.

For most projects in England, building control will generally involve either a local authority building control service or a Registered Building Control Approver. Different arrangements apply to higher-risk building work, where the Building Safety Regulator acts as the building control authority.

Building Regulations address a wide range of matters, including structure, fire safety, ventilation, energy performance, sanitation, drainage and accessibility.

Compliance should therefore be considered as part of design development rather than treated simply as an approval exercise at the end.

This is particularly important where several disciplines contribute to compliance. An individual designer may be responsible for their own design, but there also needs to be sufficient coordination to understand whether the design as a whole meets the relevant requirements.

4. Confirm the client’s dutyholder appointments

The Building Regulations dutyholder regime places responsibilities on clients, designers and contractors undertaking building work in England.

For organisational clients, one important requirement is to make suitable arrangements for planning, managing and monitoring the project so that the building work complies with the Building Regulations.

Clients must also allocate appropriate time and resources and take reasonable steps to appoint people and organisations with the necessary competence or organisational capability.

Where there is more than one contractor, or it is reasonably foreseeable that there will be more than one contractor working on the project, the client must appoint in writing a Principal Designer and Principal Contractor under the Building Regulations.

The Building Regulations Principal Designer is responsible for planning, managing, monitoring and coordinating design work so that, if built, it complies with the relevant Building Regulations requirements.

There are also Principal Designer and Principal Contractor roles under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 — usually known as CDM. These roles relate to managing health and safety risks.

The same organisation can sometimes undertake corresponding roles under both regimes where it has the appropriate competence, but they remain distinct legal functions.

Clients should therefore be clear about who has been appointed, for which role, and under which legislation.

We will look specifically at the Building Regulations Principal Designer role and what clients should consider when making that appointment in a forthcoming article.

5. Test whether accessibility and inclusive design have survived design development

Accessibility should not disappear between the planning application and the technical design.

An inclusive project considers how people with a wide range of physical, sensory and cognitive requirements will approach, enter, navigate and use a building — and how that experience is affected by the detailed design, specification and eventual operation of the facility.

At technical design stage this may mean reviewing circulation, doors, thresholds, sanitary accommodation, lighting, acoustics, signage, controls, reception facilities and other elements as they develop.

For existing buildings, heritage projects and refurbishments, the issues can be more complex because physical constraints have to be understood alongside statutory requirements and the needs of users.

Early access consultancy can help the design team identify these issues while there is still an opportunity to resolve them through design, rather than discovering them once key decisions have been fixed or construction has begun.

6. Identify third-party and neighbour requirements

Other statutory, legal or third-party matters may sit outside both planning and Building Regulations.

The Party Wall etc. Act 1996, for example, may apply to certain works involving party structures, work at boundaries or excavation near neighbouring buildings.

Planning consent and Building Regulations approval do not remove obligations under the Act.

For a larger or constrained site there may also be requirements involving landlords, funders, adjoining owners, utilities, highways authorities, Network Rail or other third parties.

These interfaces should be identified early enough to understand whether notices, consents, licences, agreements or access arrangements could affect the programme.

7. Make the design sufficiently clear before going to the market

The appropriate procurement strategy will vary according to the project, the client’s objectives and the chosen form of contract.

Whatever route is selected, clients should understand what is designed, what remains to be designed and who will carry that responsibility after appointment.

Unresolved information does not necessarily disappear when a contractor is appointed. It can instead become a tender qualification, provisional allowance, contractor assumption or subsequent variation.

A good tender process therefore depends on more than issuing a collection of drawings. The design information, specification, scope, responsibilities and contractual requirements need to tell a coherent story.

Clients should also be clear about how tenders will be evaluated. Cost is important, but programme, methodology, competence, resources, understanding of the project and management of key risks may also be material considerations.

8. Check construction readiness, not simply the intended start date

A programme may show that construction is due to begin on a particular date. That does not necessarily mean that the project is ready to start.

Before commencement, the client and project team should be able to establish, proportionately to the project, that:

• relevant planning conditions and statutory requirements have been addressed;

• the technical design is sufficiently developed and coordinated;

• Building Regulations compliance arrangements and the appropriate building control route are in place;

• required dutyholders have been appointed and their responsibilities are understood;

• significant design responsibilities and outstanding information are identified;

• relevant Party Wall and third-party matters have been considered;

• the construction scope, contract sum and programme are sufficiently clear;

• an appropriate building contract is in place; and

• project information can be transferred effectively from design into construction.

For occupied buildings, schools, housing estates, healthcare premises and community facilities, readiness may also involve phasing, decanting, safeguarding, maintaining services, temporary works and keeping users separated from construction activity.

Why the period after planning matters

The period between planning and construction is sometimes seen simply as the time needed to produce more detailed drawings.

In reality, it is an important project assurance and coordination stage.

It is where the client’s requirements, statutory duties, technical design, specialist input, procurement strategy and delivery arrangements should begin to converge.

Decisions made here can affect compliance, buildability, cost certainty, programme and the quality of the completed project.

The question for a client is therefore not simply:

“Do we have planning permission?”

It is:

“Do we have the information, appointments, approvals and arrangements needed to move into construction with appropriate confidence?”

That is a much more useful measure of construction readiness.

About TOCA

TOCA is a multidisciplinary built-environment consultancy supporting clients through design, project delivery, statutory compliance and inclusive design.

Our services include architecture, project and programme management, Principal Designer services, access consultancy and Party Wall matters, bringing together the different requirements that need to be coordinated as projects move from concept through design and construction.

Teri Okoro FRIBA FAPM ChPP NRAC is Founder and Director of TOCA. She is a Chartered Architect, Chartered Project Professional and Registered Access Consultant, with experience across architecture, project delivery, inclusive design and built-environment governance.

Author Teri Okoro

Publication date Wednesday 21st October 2026

Approximate reading time 6 minutes