Planning

Planning continues to be at the forefront of Birmingham's transformation into a modern, vibrant international city, which today boasts many award-winning developments. Our role is to encourage and guide development that will help make Birmingham one of the world's top cities - a place where people increasingly want to live, work and visit and where businesses choose to invest.

We prepare local planning policies, development plans and design guidelines. We also encourage forward-thinking, long-term, top quality design through the planning application process.

Our Building Consultancy team ensure a safe and healthy built environment for Birmingham, and also check the safety of sports grounds including Aston Villa and Birmingham City.

And we play a lead role in conserving both the natural and built environment.

When you buy a house, our Local Land Charges team provides one of the fastest local search services in the country.


A Quick Guide to the Planning Service

Our goal is to secure a better environment for all the people of Birmingham. We are the people who:

• encourage sustainable high quality design and development through the planning application process. Each year we receive thousands of planning applications, ranging from major developments to householder applications. These are considered by the Planning Committee. Decisions are goverened by Town Planning law and national Planning Guidance as well as local policies and development plans (See Planning Applications)

• ensure a safe and healthy built environment for Birmingham. We deal with thousands of applications for building regulations approval every year - from major developments such as the Bull Ring to householder applications - providing comprehensive building control and surveying services. We check the safety of sports grounds including Aston Villa and Birmingham City football stadiums.(See Building Regulations)

• prepare local planning policies, development plans and design guidelines which help to shape a high quality environment. We do this under the direction of the Council's Cabinet. Cabinet decisions guide the continuing transformation of the city centre, which has brought new prosperity to Birmingham in the last 15 years, and the top priority now is to mirror this success in local neighbourhoods across the city. (See Development Plans and Policies )

• protect archaeological remains and historic buildings and areas. Our aim is to conserve the best of Birmingham's old buildings and districts, to be enjoyed by this generation and generations to come. Birmingham's Conservation Strategy sets out the Council's policies to conserve and enhance the city's built heritage.

• play a lead role in nature conservation for the City. Even in a city as densely built up as ours, there is a suprisingly rich variety of natural open spaces and wildlife. Birmingham's first Nature Conservation Strategy was published in March 1997 and sets out the Council's policies to conserve and enhance our natural heritage. (See Conservation of the Natural Environment )

• carry out local searches against the Land Charges Register. (A 'local search' is one of the checks a solicitor will make when a client buys a house). Our Local Land Charges team provides one of the fastest services in the country. (See Local Land Charges Registry)

• protect trees which are considered to be an amenity to a local area. Trees are important for nature conservation, they make an area more attractive and may also be an historical feature. We keep records of all tree preservation orders in Birmingham whether trees are situated on private land or within a conservation area.