One of the key things to bear in mind if you are thinking about attempting to obtain planning permission for housing on a piece of land is how important it is to be proactive about it.

If you have land you think might be suitable for development, such as land on the edge of a town or village, it is no good waiting and expecting for the council to come and allocate it for development – you need to start working to prove it is suitable and deliverable as soon as possible.

Planning has moved on at a pace, and there has been a complete move away from councils having a positive approach towards the assessment of land.

Getting planning permission is a long, complicated and expensive process, and there are no shortcuts or easy solutions – there is no silver bullet.

That’s where an experienced land promotion company can help.

We are now in an era where you have to really push the benefits of a certain piece of land, prove that it is capable of being developed and do the work required in advance, preferably before the council decides to review its local plan or makes a call for sites.

You might have the best site in the best location, but if you haven’t done your homework or are too late in the process you will miss out, so it is a case of recognising the potential of your land and acting on it as soon as possible.

The costs of promoting land and making a planning application are not for the faint-hearted either.

A fairly straightforward planning application on a site of say, 20 acres, usually costs around £150,000, and if it is refused or the council don’t consider it then we go to appeal, which usually takes 12 to 18 months and costs around the same again.

This sort of upfront investment is a significant amount of money when there is no guarantee of success. 

“What we do at Muller is take on all the costs and all the risk, being paid only when the land is sold”.

There is an immense amount of skill involved in driving land promotion – it is like a huge jigsaw, and we assemble all the component parts, manage and drive the process forward.

The way in which the planning system has evolved means that not only do you need experts who know the system and have the resolve and tenacity to see the process through to the end and who are able to fund the process.