CGIs for Planning Applications: What UK Planning Authorities Expect

What planning visuals are for

Drawings describe a scheme precisely but most people struggle to read them. Planning visuals turn them into views that a planning officer, a committee member or the family next door can judge at a glance: how tall the building looks from the pavement, how it meets the houses on either side, and what the brick and roof will look like on an ordinary grey afternoon.

Three kinds of image turn up in submissions. Illustrative CGIs show the design attractively but are not tied to a measured viewpoint. Photomontages place a model of the scheme into a photograph of the real site. The most rigorous kind have their camera positions surveyed, so anyone can check that the proposal is shown at the correct size and position. Choosing between them is mostly a question of how sensitive the site is and how closely the images will be examined.

Validation: start with the local list

Most planning applications are made to the LPA, which in two-tier areas is usually the district council. Alongside the national requirements for a valid application, each LPA publishes its own local information requirements, normally called the local list. That list is where you find out whether the council wants visual material for a given type of development, and in what form. Some ask for photomontages for tall buildings or schemes in sensitive views; plenty say nothing specific about CGIs at all.

Check the current local list on the council's website before the brief is written, because lists are revised and they decide what a validation officer will look for. Where the list is silent, the choice rests with your planning consultant or architect. London boroughs add their own layer, including protected views, and our page on 3D rendering in London covers the capital's planning context in more depth.

Design and Access Statements

A Design and Access Statement explains the design principles behind a proposal and how it responds to its site. It is required for major development; for development in a conservation area or World Heritage Site where the proposal involves one or more dwellings or a building of 100 square metres or more; and for applications for listed building consent. Changes of use, engineering or mining operations and applications to amend conditions do not need one.

Visuals support a Design and Access Statement rather than being a requirement of it. A pair of street-level CGIs showing the scheme beside its neighbours, or a short sequence of views through a courtyard, often says more about scale and character than a page of text. Design and Access Statement visuals work best when each image answers a point the statement makes, so brief them alongside the written statement rather than after it is finished.

Pre-application advice and early visuals

Many applicants seek pre-application advice from the LPA before submitting, especially for larger or sensitive schemes. Simple visuals at this stage, such as a massing study set into its street or a quick photomontage from one key viewpoint, help officers respond with clearer feedback and raise concerns about height or bulk while the design can still move.

Keep pre-application visuals honest and modest. They are a tool for a conversation, not a marketing image, and a polished view of a design that later changes can create expectations the final scheme does not meet. The full set of planning images is usually best commissioned once the design has settled after that feedback, using a model that can be updated rather than rebuilt.

Householder applications and major schemes

The visuals a scheme needs scale with the scheme. A rear extension and a two-hundred-home development face very different levels of scrutiny, and the images should reflect that difference rather than treat every application alike.

Conservation areas and listed building settings

Most conservation areas are designated by local planning authorities, usually supported by an appraisal that describes what gives the area its character. A proposal inside one, or on its edge, is judged against that character, so visuals should show the scheme in its real context: the roofline of the street, the rhythm of windows and the materials of the buildings around it.

Listed buildings raise a related question. Works to demolish part of, alter or extend a listed building in a way that affects its character need listed building consent, whether or not planning permission is also needed. Even where the listed building itself is untouched, the setting of a listed building is often assessed through the visual relationship between it and a new proposal. A photomontage from the places where the two are seen together is the clearest way to show that relationship, and in sensitive cases the accuracy of that image matters as much as its finish.

TGN 06/19 and the four visualisation types

The Landscape Institute's Technical Guidance Note 06/19, Visual Representation of Development Proposals, is the reference most planning professionals use for visual accuracy. It was published in September 2019, it is still the current note, and the Institute has said it is under review. It describes four visualisation types, running from the least to the most rigorous.

• Type 1, annotated viewpoint photograph: a photograph of the site with the position of the proposal marked on it.
• Type 2, 3D wireline or model: the scheme shown as an outline or simple model, useful for testing massing.
• Type 3, photomontage or photowire: the rendered scheme placed into a photograph of the site, with the method described.
• Type 4, photomontage or photowire that is survey or scale verifiable: camera positions and reference points are surveyed so the image can be checked.

Planning committees and appeals

An LPA can decide applications through a committee, a sub-committee or its officers. Larger or contentious schemes typically go before a planning committee of elected members, where the officer presents the application and the visuals are shown on screen. For a planning committee presentation, the images that work are those taken from viewpoints members recognise, labelled clearly as illustrative or accurate, and consistent with the drawings that were submitted.

If permission is refused, or no decision arrives within the statutory period, the applicant can appeal to the Planning Inspectorate, and householder appeals run through a separate householder appeal service. An inspector reads visual evidence closely, and so will the council in setting out its case, so any image that claims accuracy should come with an explanation of how it was made. Images produced for marketing are best kept out of an appeal altogether.

England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland

Planning is devolved, and this guide is written for England. The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) sets national planning policy for England only, and it has been revised more than once, so read the current version on gov.uk rather than an older summary. In Wales, national policy is set out in Planning Policy Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own national planning frameworks, which differ from England's in both policy and procedure. The principles here, honest viewpoints and a documented method, travel well across all four nations; the requirements behind them do not, so always check with the planning authority where the site is.

Looking for prices? Standard images are listed on one page, 3D rendering cost in the UK, while photomontages and verified views are quoted per project with the method documented.