A design is completed on schedule and everybody is pleased. The client asks when work can start on site.
The answer is not for several months, because planning has not been applied for, building control has not been engaged, a utility diversion needs agreeing and an environmental assessment has a seasonal survey window that has just closed.
Nothing about the design was late. The approvals were treated as a stage after design rather than as a parallel process, and the programme was never about the drawings.
1. Establish which approvals apply at the outset
Planning, building control, utilities, highways, environmental, landlord, freeholder and anything sector specific. The list is longer than most clients expect and it varies with the project.
2. Name who is responsible for each
Client, design team, specialist consultant or contractor. This is where things fall through entirely, because everybody assumes somebody else is handling it.
3. Explain that approvals are not one process
Clients frequently think in terms of permission as a single thing. Explaining that several separate bodies each have their own process and timescale reframes the whole programme.
4. Start the long ones first
Environmental assessments, utility diversions and anything with a consultation period. These are the items that set the earliest possible start date.
5. Watch for seasonal windows
Ecological surveys and certain assessments can only be carried out at particular times of year. Missing one delays a project by months and it is entirely invisible to a client.
6. Explain the pre application route
Where an informal discussion before a formal submission is available, it frequently saves more time than it costs, and clients rarely know it exists.
7. Explain the difference between permission and conditions
A permission with conditions attached is not a permission to start. Discharging conditions takes time and it surprises clients who believed the approval was the finish line.
8. Explain building control as a parallel process
Separate from planning, with its own submission, inspections and sign off. These two are conflated constantly and the confusion causes real delay.
9. Identify the third party agreements early
Party wall matters, easements, landlord consents and neighbour agreements. Each of these involves somebody with no interest in your programme.
10. Explain what happens if something is refused
Amendment, appeal or redesign, with the timescale for each. Clients should know the downside before committing rather than discovering it afterwards.
11. Explain the inspection requirements during construction
What must be inspected, at what stage and with what notice. Missing an inspection can mean opening up work that has been covered.
12. Keep the programme honest about approvals
They are the critical path on most projects and they belong at the front of any programme conversation, which is the ground in programme and timescale questions.
13. Establish the scope of what is being consented early
Feasibility work frequently determines what is even likely to be approved, which is the groundwork in scoping and feasibility questions from new clients.
14. Answer the approvals question at the first enquiry
An assistant that establishes the project type, location and scale, sets out which approvals are likely to apply, explains which have long timescales and flags any seasonal window gives a client a realistic picture before anybody draws anything. The domestic version is covered in permit and inspection questions on remodelling projects, handled with the care in how to handle sensitive questions in your chatbot. See features, start at try, and the sector view sits under b2b.