Architecture and design
Whether you are planning an extension, a new home or a conversion, our RIBA chartered architects can design it, with our planners checking the planning position as your drawings develop.
Planning consultants · Sheffield
Planning consultants in Sheffield
Whether you are hoping to extend your home, find a new use for a building or see what a piece of land could become, the planning position in Sheffield depends a great deal on where your site sits. A house in an older suburb and a field on the edge of the Peak District can answer to quite different rules.
From a first conversation, we can usually tell you which rules apply, what is realistic and what would give your application the best footing. Because our planners and architects work together, the planning case and the design of your project are shaped side by side from the start.
Key contact
Richard Pigott
Managing Director – Chartered Town Planner
How we can help
Planning, design and heritage help across Sheffield
Whatever your project, one of the pages below will speak more directly to it. You are welcome to start with whichever feels closest, and if your project touches on more than one, we can help you with all of it.
Heritage and listed buildings
When your building is listed or sits in a conservation area, we can explain what makes it significant and help you make changes that respect it.
Planning appeals
If your application has been refused, we can look at the reasons with you and help you decide whether an appeal or a revised scheme is the better route.
House extensions
Are you thinking of adding space at home? We can let you know whether it needs permission, and take care of the householder application for you if it does.
Commercial planning
If you own or run a business property, we can advise you on changes of use, new or extended premises and schemes in and around the city centre.
Residential development
For landowners and developers, we can give you a considered view of a site’s prospects and prepare the planning and design work that makes its case.
Green Belt planning
Where your land is in the Green Belt, we can tell you early whether a recognised exception could apply, and what the case for it would involve.
Conservation areas
In a conservation area, some changes need permission that would not need it elsewhere, and we can check what applies to your home, including any Article 4 directions.
Peak District planning
If your site is inside the National Park, the Peak District National Park Authority will decide your application, and we can help you prepare a scheme that responds to the landscape around it.
Local context
Planning in Sheffield
Your project might be a family home in one of the older suburbs, a building near the centre that has outgrown its first use, or land at the edge of the city where the countryside begins. Each raises its own planning questions, and knowing early which ones apply to you makes the rest of the process much clearer.
Our work at Banner Cross Hall on Ecclesall Road South was for a change of use from offices to a school for children with special educational needs, which Sheffield City Council approved. The hall is Grade II listed, so our work covered its heritage significance as well as the planning merits of the new use. If you are considering a new use for an older building, it is worth having both looked at together from the outset.
South-east of the city, near junction 31 of the M1, we handled the planning work for a factory extension at Wales Bar, which Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council approved. A Sheffield postcode does not always mean Sheffield City Council will decide your application, so if your site is near the boundary, we will check the address and confirm who will.
Alongside projects like these, we can help you with an extension or alteration to your home, a new use for an existing building, or the question of what your land could support. Whatever you have in mind, the people shaping your design and the people making your planning case will be colleagues in one practice.
The Peak District National Park
Part of the city's western side lies inside the National Park, where the Peak District National Park Authority decides applications and gives particular weight to the landscape. If your site is close to the park boundary, we will check which side it falls on and shape your proposals around the right authority's policies from the start.
Green Belt around the city
Green Belt covers open land around the edges of the city, where new building starts from a more restrictive position. Some proposals fall within the recognised exceptions, and we can look at yours against them before you invest in a design.
Conservation areas and Article 4 directions
Some of the older suburbs and parts of the city centre are conservation areas, and in some of them Article 4 directions bring smaller changes under planning control. From your address we can tell you which controls apply, and help you settle on materials and details that sit well in your street.
Client Testimonial
We have worked with Planning & Design Practice for many years. A dedicated quality team and a pleasure to collaborate with.
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Recent work
Our work in Sheffield
At Banner Cross Hall in Ecclesall, a Grade II listed building, we secured permission to change its use from offices to a school. If your project is in or near Sheffield, it may help you picture how we would approach yours.
Ecclesall Road South, Sheffield
Change Of Use from Office to School – Sheffield
Listed Building and Planning application for the change of use of Banner Cross Hall, a Grade II listed building in
Helpful reading
Guides and insights
Permitted Development Rights for Solar Get a Major Update in England
Permitted development rights for solar change in England on 27 August 2026. What is new for houses, flats, plug-in solar and heritage sites.
Good to know
Questions about planning in Sheffield
Do I need planning permission for my project?
That depends on the work you have in mind and on the property itself. Many smaller projects can go ahead under permitted development, although those rights are more limited in conservation areas and for flats, and an Article 4 direction can remove some of them altogether. If you send us the address and a short description, we can let you know whether you need to apply before you commit to anything.
Which authority will decide my application?
Across most of the city, your application will be decided by Sheffield City Council. If your site lies inside the Peak District National Park, the Peak District National Park Authority decides instead, and close to the city’s edges your site may fall to a neighbouring council. Your address is enough for us to confirm which authority will decide your application.
How long does a planning application take?
The statutory period for a decision is eight weeks for most householder applications and thirteen weeks for major schemes, counted from the date your application is validated. What happens before you apply is more in your hands, and we will agree a realistic programme for the design and preparation with you at the outset.
How much does a planning consultant cost?
It depends on your project, because a householder application is a very different piece of work from promoting a site for new homes. After our first conversation, we set out the scope and the fee in writing, so you can decide with the full picture in front of you.
Can you look after the design as well as the planning?
Our chartered town planners and RIBA chartered architects are part of one practice, so we can take on both, and your scheme is designed with the planning position in mind from the first sketch. One team then carries it through to a decision, so you are not passing your project between firms.
What happens if my application is refused?
A refusal is disappointing, and it is worth reading the reasons carefully before you decide what to do. Depending on those reasons, a revised application or an appeal to the Planning Inspectorate may be the better route for you, and if you appeal, the time limits are strict and run from the date of the decision. Our planners handle appeals in house, and we are happy to look at your refusal whoever prepared the original application.
Find us
Our nearest office
Planning & Design Practice — Sheffield
The Workstation, 15 Paternoster Row, Sheffield, S1 2BX
Sheffield and South Yorkshire
Planning authorities
Planning advice
Planning a project in Sheffield?
Is there a site, a building or an idea in Sheffield you would like a planner's view on? A few lines about it are enough for us to give you a first sense of the planning position and what you might do first, and there is no charge for that conversation.