Charges for Building Control Services

Stafford Borough Council's Building Control service have entered into a shared service arrangement with Cannock Chase Council.  From the 1 April 2011, cheques for Building Control related fees must be made payable to Cannock Chase Council.

Invoices for inspection fees will also be sent from Cannock Chase Council from this date.  All applications and correspondence should still be sent to Stafford Borough Council, Civic Centre, Riverside, Stafford, ST16 3AQ.

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Before you carry out building work to which the Building Regulations apply you, or your agent, must either deposit Full Plans or a Building Notice together with the appropriate charge.  The charge payable is dependent upon the type of work carried out and can be calculated by reference to the following notes and schedules.

Cheques should be made payable to 'Stafford Borough Council'.

Through the following link can be found Stafford Borough Council's Application forms and Fees (for charges based on estimate costs in excess of £100,000, please contact us).

Charges are payable as follows:

Plan charge

Should you submit a Full Plans application, you will generally pay a plan charge at the time of submission to cover approval or rejection of the plans.

Inspection charge

With a Full Plans submission, for most types of work, an inspection charge covering all necessary site visits will be payable after the first inspection.  If applicable, you will be sent an invoice for this charge.

Building Notice charge

For a Building Notice application, the appropriate charge is payable at the time of submission and covers all necessary checks and site visits in relation to the work described in the notice.

Regularisation charge

As owner of the unauthorised building work, should you apply for a Regularisation Certificate, the charge is equivalent to 120% of the Building Charge Notice charge.  No VAT is payable on a regularisation charge.

Table A - Charges for small domestic buildings eg certain new dwelling houses and flats

Applicable where the total internal floor area of each dwelling, excluding any garage or carport does not exceed 300m2 and the building has no more than three storeys, each basement level being counted as one storey.  In any other case Table C applies.

Table B - Charges for certain small buildings, domestic extensions and alterations

Where work comprises of more than one domestic extension, the total floor area of all storeys of all extensions shown on the application may be added together to determine the relevant charge.  If the extension(s) exceed 60m2 or three storeys in height then Table C applies.

Table C - Charges for other work

Applicable to all other building work not covered by Tables A or B.  "Total estimated cost" means an acceptable reasonable estimate that would be charged by a person in business to carry out the work shown or described in the application excluding VAT and any professional charges to an architect, engineer or surveyor, etc and also excluding land acquisition costs. (Table C)

Exemptions/reductions of charges

  • Where plans have been either approved or rejected, no further charge is payable on resubmission for substantially the same work.
  • Works to provide access and/or facilities for disabled people to existing dwellings and buildings to which the public have access are exempt from charges.  In the regulations "disabled person" means a person who is within the descriptions to whom Section 29(1) of the National Assistance Act 1948 applies.
  • Where an application or Building Notice is in respect of two or more dwellings or other work, all of which is/are substantially the same, or another such application or Building Notice has previously been dealt with by an authority, within certain criteria, a reduction of 25% on the plan charge or on the plan charge proportion of the Building Notice charge is allowable.

Approved document Part P: Electrical safety applies to domestic building work.  Applicants proposing work involving new or existing electrical installations are strongly urged to employ the services of an electrician who is registered within the competent persons self-certification scheme under the building regulations.  If this is not the case the Council will use an independent electrical contractor to certify that the installation complies with the legislation and this additional cost will be passed on to the applicant/property owner.

If you have an difficulties calculating charges please contact the Building Control Section.