Pre-application advice

From 1 April 2023, we're reintroducing our pre-application advice service. We'll be following a new process, to make things simpler for customers, and to make sure the advice we give is consistent. We'll also be introducing charges for some services.

Types of pre-application advice

There are 5 levels of pre-application advice, depending on the scale of your proposed development. This is to reflect the amount of time it takes to provide the advice.

Free advice

We offer free advice on:

• whether planning permission is required (for householders)
• listed building consent
• whether a tree is covered by a tree preservation order (TPO)
• whether a property or tree is in a conservation area, or area under an Article 4 direction

We will not provide advice on the suitability of schemes or whether they comply with planning policy.

Charged advice

Householder / other

We provide advice on:

• proposed extensions and changes to domestic properties
• new accesses (for example, creating a new entrance to a building)
• small scale renewable energy schemes
• advertisements
• small scale changes of use and similar proposals

Minor developments

We provide advice on schemes:

• commercial, employment, office, or retail floor space up to 1000m² (or 1ha)
• up to 9 dwellings (or up to 0.5ha)

Major developments

We provide advice on schemes:

• commercial, industrial, office, or retail floor space between 1,000m² and 9,999m² (or 1ha and 5ha)
• outline applications up to 5ha of land
• between 10 and 99 dwellings (or between 0.5ha and 5ha)

We also provide advice on large scale renewable energy schemes and similar proposals.

Strategic developments

We provide advice on schemes:

• over 100 dwellings (or over 5ha)
• commercial, industrial, office, or retail floorspace over 10,000m² (or 5ha)
• outline or hybrid applications of over 5ha of land

Getting pre-application advice

If you want pre-application advice, email developmentcontrol@middlesbrough.gov.uk and let us know what you need advice about. We’ll send you the relevant forms by email.

Charges

Our charges are based on the amount of time we spend dealing with a proposal so they are fair for all applicants. In each category, there are set fees for the initial advice. Additional fees will apply if applicants or their agents want us to consider additional information, or have additional meetings.

A bespoke option is available for complex schemes which need a more in-depth level of service.

We will review the charges regularly.

List of pre-application advice charges