Structural alteration covers anything that changes how a building carries its own weight: new openings, removed walls, altered floors, new steel. We survey, appoint a structural engineer, build to the calculations they issue and coordinate the consents. We do not write structural calculations and we are not surveyors or architects. This page explains which consents apply in Brentwood and who issues them.
Two separate consents, both dealt with by Brentwood Borough Council
Brentwood Borough Council is the local planning authority and the building control authority for Brentwood, and it works from the Town Hall on Ingrave Road, Brentwood CM15 8AY. Planning permission and building regulations approval are different decisions with different tests, and a job can need one, both or neither.
The council's building control service accepts building notice applications, full plans submissions and regularisation certificate applications, plus a notice of intended demolition. Which route suits your job depends on how much is being altered and whether any of it is coming down. We settle that before work starts rather than after.
There are 512 listed buildings in the borough, and listing brings a separate consent
Brentwood Borough Council records 512 listed buildings in the borough: 12 at grade I, 27 at grade II* and 473 at grade II. About thirty entries on the statutory list stand inside the Brentwood Town Centre Conservation Area alone. Listing covers the interior as well as the outside, so internal structural work is caught by it.
Where a proposal affects a designated heritage asset, including a conservation area, Strategic Policy BE16 of the Brentwood Local Plan requires a Heritage Statement setting out the significance of the asset and the potential impacts of the proposal. That is a document to commission early. We tell you when your property looks likely to need one, and build to whatever comes out of it.
No Article 4 direction has been made anywhere in Brentwood borough
The government's Planning Data platform holds zero records for Brentwood Borough Council in both the article 4 direction and the article 4 direction area datasets. The adopted Local Plan refers to Article 4 directions only prospectively, at paragraph 4.45, as a special legislative tool the council will use where considered necessary.
The Brentwood Town Centre Conservation Area Appraisal proposes that an Article 4 direction should make planning permission necessary for alterations affecting windows, doors or other openings, including the insertion of new windows and doors. That direction has not been made. Conservation area controls still apply in their own right, so check your address rather than assume either way.
What the council asks to see, and how long its advice takes
Brentwood Borough Council's householder application guide asks for a site location plan at 1:1250 in urban areas or 1:2500 in rural areas. It also asks for a site layout plan at a scale not less than 1:500, and elevations and floor plans at 1:100 or 1:50. Drawings at the wrong scale get an application returned before anyone looks at its merits.
The council gives no target date for a written response to its householder pre application advice service, and states that advertised time frames are taking longer than anticipated. If you want a view before you commit, ask early and put the wait into your planning stage rather than into your build programme.
- Floor structure, joist and beam replacement
- Drainage diversion and build-over agreements where required
- Crack repair, helical bar stitching and masonry restraint
- Basement and cellar alterations with retaining support
- Trial holes to confirm foundation depth and ground conditions
Why Brentwood Homeowners Choose GS Renovation
Structural alteration goes wrong at the joins: between the engineer and the builder, between planning and building control, between the steel arriving and the wall coming down. We hold all of those. We appoint the structural engineer, build to the calculations they issue, make the building control application to Brentwood Borough Council and book the inspections around our own programme. Where heritage consent is in play we tell you before the design is fixed, not after it is refused. GS Renovation Ltd is a contractor, fully insured, registered in England, company number 14611254, with one point of contact from survey to sign off. Quotations are free and without obligation.
- Building control inspected at foundation, steel and completion
- Dust screens and floor protection in occupied homes
- The engineer's calculations obtained and worked to on site
- Rated 4.9 from 31 reviews on MyBuilder
- Registered in England, Companies House no. 14611254
- Straight advice on what is and is not worth spending money on