The appraisal looks fundable. GDV works. The cost plan has an elemental split. Then credit asks for the decision notice and the broker sends a planning portal screenshot of the application status. No PDF. No stamped drawings. No condition schedule. The development finance enquiry does not die on LTV. It stalls on consent the desk cannot read.

StatusKWO prices commercial works facilities for professional developers, investors and corporate SPVs. Owner-occupier main-home lending sits outside that book. Short commercial facilities on the published schedule currently show a monthly rate from 1.25%, an entry fee of 2%, an exit fee of 1.5%, LTV up to 85%, loans from £10,000 to £10,000,000+ and terms up to 16 months. Development facilities are priced on the scheme. Those bridging figures are a schedule reference, not a promise that every ground-up file prices at the floor.

The decision notice that never left the architect’s inbox

A tidy decision in principle on GDV alone is not a funded first draw. Credit needs the same papers a planning officer and a monitoring surveyor would recognise. A covering line that says “full planning granted” does not underwrite a programme.

Our planning permission overview covers consent risk at a high level. The build-cost and drawdown pack covers spend and releases. The bridge versus development split covers product choice. What follows is narrower. It is the decision notice, approved drawings and condition-discharge evidence a specialist desk wants before it prices an unregulated commercial works facility.

Start with one page. Site address and title number. Local planning authority. Application reference. Decision date. Full, outline or reserved matters. Number of units or floorspace permitted. Pre-commencement conditions still open. Section 106 or CIL liability. Gross and net facility. Named exit. Borrower name. Then attach the decision notice PDF. Marketing boards that say “planning approved” take ten seconds to read. Credit cannot invent condition wording from a board.

What the notice and approved drawings must show credit

A decision notice is not a brochure graphic. GOV.UK’s when is permission required guidance is plain. Operations that fall within development generally need planning permission, subject to permitted development and other regimes. Credit still wants the live notice for the scheme being funded, not a paraphrase of what the architect remembers from committee.

Pull the decision notice from the local planning authority and put the full PDF in the zip. A cropped screenshot that hides the conditions, the approved plan references or the time limit fails. So does a broker email that says “looks fine” with no file attached.

Match the address on the notice to the title and the valuation instruction. Wrong plot numbers create legal delay that a twelve-month facility does not absorb. If the permission covers a wider site than the charged title, draw the red line. Credit needs to know which consent travels with which security.

Approved drawings sit beside the notice. Stamp or schedule references. Site plan. Floor plans. Elevations. Sections where they exist. Credit reads the plans against the appraisal. A GDV model that assumes twelve flats when the permission shows ten stalls before the monitor ever visits. If the drawings are still being substituted under a condition, say so and attach the latest submission.

Time limits matter. Many permissions must begin within a stated period. If the notice is silent, statutory defaults can still apply. Put the start-by date on page one. A facility sized to a permission that expires mid-programme is already soft. Extensions of time and fresh applications change both cost and exit. Say which route is live before you ask for land-and-works money.

Informatives on the notice are not conditions. They remind the applicant about other approvals. Building regulations. Highways. Ecology licences. Credit still wants to know which informatives turn into real cash and real clocks. A quiet informative about contaminated land that later becomes a remediation bill is how residuals break.

Pre-commencement conditions that freeze the first draw

Conditions control how permission is implemented. GOV.UK’s use of planning conditions guidance sets the six tests. Necessary. Relevant to planning. Relevant to the development. Enforceable. Precise. Reasonable. Credit is not arguing policy with the local authority. It is reading which conditions block start on site.

Pre-commencement wording is the stall brokers under-price. “No development shall take place until…” or “prior to any works starting on site…” freezes the first works draw even when the land purchase has already completed. Materials. Contamination. Drainage. Tree protection. Construction management. Highway works. Archaeology. Each one can sit on the critical path.

List every open pre-commencement condition on page one of the broker note. Condition number. Exact trigger. Discharge status. Submission date if lodged. Target decision date. A single line that says “conditions in hand” fails. Credit will ask for the schedule anyway.

Cost sits next to each open condition. Reports. Surveys. Dilapidation works. Highway agreements. Ecology seasonality. If discharge needs a bat survey that can only run in spring, the programme already knows. Put that cost into contingency or into a named line on the cost plan. Silence forces the underwriter to discover it when the contractor is already mobilising.

Grampian-style negative conditions that ban occupation or commencement until an off-site act happens need the same honesty. Credit prices the prospect of that act landing inside the facility term. A hope that the highway authority will sign next month is not evidence. A draft agreement and a dated programme is closer.

Building regulations sit beside planning, not inside it. GOV.UK’s building regulations approval pages treat the regimes as separate. Full plans. Building notice. Registered building control approver. Building Safety Regulator involvement on higher-risk buildings. A decision notice that looks clean does not prove the technical path. Put the building control route in the same zip as the planning pack.

How brokers prove discharge status and the eight-week clock

Discharge is its own application. The Planning Portal’s approval of details reserved by condition pages explain the route. You apply after permission is granted. You show how each condition will be met. One application can cover several conditions. It is not a standalone planning permission.

Attach the discharge application reference, the documents lodged and any decision letter already issued. Partial discharges need clear marking. Condition 5 materials approved. Condition 7 drainage still open. Credit will not assume a materials letter clears contamination.

Clocks matter on live facilities. GOV.UK guidance says the local planning authority must give notice of its decision within eight weeks of receiving a discharge application, or any longer period agreed in writing. Planning Portal guidance adds that if no decision is made within twelve weeks the fee should be returned. Put the lodged date and the expected decision window next to the first draw date. A facility that assumes start on site in fortnight one while discharge still has six weeks to run is already late on paper.

Deemed discharge exists for some conditions under the Development Management Procedure Order route. It is not automatic. Eligibility rules apply. Some condition types are excluded. Applicants must follow the notice procedure. Do not tell credit that silence equals approval unless the statutory route has actually been followed and documented. Attach the deemed discharge notice and the calculation of the effective date when that path is live.

Refusals of discharge keep the condition alive. Say so. A covering email that hides a refusal until the monitor asks wastes a week. Variation or removal of a condition is a different application type. If the borrower is chasing a section 73 change instead of discharge, label it. Mixing the two routes in one zip creates lawyer time that burns interest.

Brokers who work StatusKWO files regularly should keep one naming convention. Decision notice. Approved plans. Condition schedule spreadsheet. Discharge letters in number order. Credit hates rebuilding five different folder trees when the same developer is already known.

Outline reserved matters and section 73 variations credit must map

Outline consent is not full delivery certainty. Reserved matters still have to land. Access. Appearance. Landscaping. Layout. Scale. Say which matters remain. Attach the outline decision and every reserved matters approval already issued. A GDV model that treats outline as build-ready will be rewritten.

Phased permissions need a map. Which phase is charged. Which phase is funded. Which conditions attach to which phase. Portfolio finance take-outs that rely on early units need the phase that actually completes first marked on the schedule. Averaging across a multi-phase consent hides the weak plot that kills the refinance.

Section 73 variations change the condition set. The original permission continues to exist. New decision notices should restate the live conditions. Send both notices when a variation is part of the story. Credit needs to know which wording governs start on site today. A broker paraphrase that merges two notices into one memory fails.

Listed building consent, conservation area constraints and advertisement consents can sit beside the planning file. Name them. Attach them. A residential conversion that clears planning but still needs listed building consent is not ready for strip-out. Auction buyers who discover that after the hammer burn deposit equity. Our auction finance process still needs the planning papers inside the wider legal pack when the lot is a works play.

Temporary permissions and personal occupancy conditions change exit quality. A meanwhile-use consent that expires inside the facility term is a different risk from a permanent grant. Agricultural worker or other occupancy limits can block a standard refinance. Put the restriction on page one. Do not bury it in an informative.

Section 106 CIL and other cash conditions beside the cost plan

Planning obligations and infrastructure levies change residual equity. They belong in the cash waterfall next to the cost plan, not in a solicitor footnote on day nine.

GOV.UK’s planning obligations guidance covers section 106 agreements. GOV.UK’s Community Infrastructure Levy pages cover CIL. Put the liability, the payment triggers and any instalment policy on page one. A GDV that ignores CIL is marketing. It is not a residual.

Send the signed section 106 where it exists. Heads of terms are not a substitute once the agreement is executed. Affordable housing. Highway works. Open space. Education contributions. Monitoring fees. Each line needs an amount and a trigger. Occupation triggers that land before sales receipts arrive create cash holes mid-bridge.

CIL notices and liability calculations belong in the same zip. Relief claims need evidence. Self-build or charitable relief that later fails can rebound as a bill. Say which relief is claimed and what happens if it falls away. Credit will ask.

Negatively worded conditions that ban commencement until a planning obligation is entered into need the draft or completed agreement in the pack. GOV.UK guidance prefers obligations to be completed before permission where possible. Live files still arrive with conditions hanging. Price the hang. Do not pretend it is cleared.

Highway agreements, water adoption and other third-party consents often sit beside the section 106. Name them. Attach draft or completed documents. A facility that funds foundations while the highway agreement is unsigned can leave a finished block that cannot be adopted or sold cleanly.

Interest during delay is a cost. Discharge delays, obligation negotiations and CIL disputes burn facility term. Build that risk into contingency and programme length. Extensions cost money and re-open underwriting. Professional borrowers who model the planning cash early get faster answers.

How the planning pack sits with build-cost title and exit evidence

Planning evidence is one zip in a larger file. It does not replace cost, title or exit papers.

Build cost still has to be monitorable. Send the elemental cost plan, contingency and drawdown schedule. Our build-cost and drawdown evidence note covers that pack. Open planning conditions that cost money must appear as lines or contingency, not as optimism.

Title still has to be chargeable. Send the register and plan. Existing charges need balances. Refinance bridges need redemption papers when a prior charge is being repaid. Light works that truly belong on a short bridging loan still need a clear consent story when the exit assumes lawful use. Mis-labelling a rebuild as a sixteen-month light refurb wastes the first week.

Exit quality sits on the finished, lawful product. Sale exits need a permission that matches the marketing. Refinance exits need a product a term lender will take, including warranties, certificates and any occupancy restrictions. Our exit finance note covers the refinance path. The planning pack still has to prove the consent that creates that exit.

Source of funds for equity and planning cash sits in the same submission. Discharge fees, obligation payments and CIL instalments are real money. They are not free. Our general bridging pack note covers identity and money trails. Put planning cash inside that trail when the borrower is funding it.

Brokers should open the decision in principle engine when the loan, term and security are known, then attach the planning folder in the same go. Decision notice. Approved drawings. Condition schedule. Discharge letters. Section 106 or CIL evidence. Building control route. Do not wait for credit to ask for the obvious notice PDF. Files that pause for a perfect pack often miss the week when the contractor could still hold the price.

Keep collecting while the DIP is out. A discharged pre-commencement condition, a reserved matters approval or a signed highway agreement can land in the same week as the valuation. Drop them into the zip as they arrive. Credit notices when the consent story stays current. It also notices when the last planning email is three months old and the site still cannot start.

Heavy works dressed as a short bridge create the same stall. If the spend needs staged releases against certificates and the consent still has open pre-commencement conditions, say so. Stop forcing a light-refurb story onto a rebuild that planning has not yet unlocked. The development finance guide covers product shape. The pack above assumes a professional developer who already knows the consent is part of the loan.

Frequently asked questions

Can StatusKWO price development finance from a planning portal screenshot alone?

Rarely. A DIP may sketch terms from a clear appraisal, but works draws need the decision notice PDF, approved drawings and a live condition schedule. Portal screenshots come back as questions.

What counts as proof that a pre-commencement condition is discharged?

A local planning authority decision letter or equivalent written approval against the named condition. Lodgement alone is not discharge. Deemed discharge needs the statutory notice route documented when it applies.

Do outline planning permission and reserved matters approval mean the same thing?

No. Outline sets the principle and the reserved envelope. Reserved matters fix the details that remain. Credit wants both sets of papers when the scheme is still moving through that route.

How should Section 106 and CIL liabilities appear in the pack?

As dated figures with payment triggers next to the cost plan and cash waterfall. Send the signed obligation or CIL notices. A residual that ignores them will be rewritten.

Open a decision in principle with the site, loan, term, GDV and exit, then attach the decision notice, approved plans, condition schedule, discharge evidence, obligation or CIL papers and the building control route in one submission. A clean planning pack is faster than a long covering story.