Two contrasting experiences relating to planning permission have popped up in the last 24 hours. Two instances of people who simply want to use their own money to build on their own property, for their own purposes.

The first was a customer who had submitted a planning application for a ground floor addition that extends 3.7m back from the back wall of his house. Had it been 3m he would have been able to go through permitted development, but he wanted 3.7, so he consulted with the local planning officer who suggested that it would be fine. He got us to submit a full planning application on this basis and the officer (eventually) processed it, putting it forward to her superior for approval. However the superior (who no-one is able to contact directly) took a different view and the application was refused. Many months of waiting, a great deal of work and quite a lot of money down the pan. Sadly, an all too familiar story and I share his frustration, but other than going to appeal (which will probably take 6 months or so - with no guarenteed outcome) or revising the scheme and starting again, there is little that can be done.

The second call came from a customer with a plot of land in Berkshire approached us a few months ago after an exhausting, very lengthy and ultimately unsuccessful struggle to win planning permission for a modest new house. Their previous architect had tried many angles and several schemes had gone before the planners only to be rebuffed, causing delays of several years and huge frustration. Wanting a fresh pair of eyes on the subject, the customer approached us and we came up with a new, very simple scheme that learned a great deal from the previous schemes and reaction to them. The customer sent our sketch proposals in to the planning officer and then went on a long holiday. I had a call this morning telling me how, while sitting by the Mediterranean, they had hovered apprehensively before opening the email from the planning officer - only to find an extremely positive and encouraging report. We hope to be preparing a full planning aplication shortly and all is looking good, but why it has been necessary for the process to have taken four and a half years (so far) is yet more testament to the ridiculous process that planning has become.

It will take a great deal of political bravery, but this planning 'game' has GOT to be changed - sooner or later.

I don't know if it is the turmoil in the economy, or too much sun, but the prices for building works that we have been getting back in the last few months have been extraordinary.

Customers (understandably) always want to know how much their building works are likely to cost from an early stage. One of the things that makes it so difficult to confidently predict prices is that at the best of times, I have always found wild variation in the prices bid by different builders for the same set of works. For example, it would be quite typical for a project that I would have thought would cost (say) £250,000 to have a range of price bids submitted from £190K up to £320K. I generally ask four or five contractors to price for any one project.

However, in the last month, we have tendered three projects and the variations in price have been more wildly spread than I have ever seen before. A single storey extension saw prices ranging from £36,000 up to £139,000, and a much larger project with a large extension, roof works and complete internal refurbishment saw a spread from £336,000 down to £128,000 - these are extraordinary by any standards.

I know that the price of building materials has rocketed recently, but this would not account for greater variation as surely this affects all contractors. The only explanation that I can think is that some contractors are looking pessemistically at the coming months, and thinking that they need to get work in whatever the price, while others are clearly busy and confident of continuing to be busy.

Strange times indeed!

Having lots of fun this week putting together our new promotional board-game: "Dream-home Builder". We are building a giant prototype version that we will be playing at the Ashby-de-la-Zouch country show this Sunday.

The game can be played by up to six players/teams, but can be played by as few as two. The idea is to progress along the board, through the various stages of the design/building process; from buying your site, outline design, planning permission, construction etc. As you reach each stage you collect some more of the building blocks for your dream home. There are six different homes to try to build, from the Englishman's Castle, to the California Beach Residence and as you progress you face all sorts of challenges and pitfalls that (on the roll of a dice) can scoot you forward or send you flying back. The use of a special "Architect Your Home card" will improve your chances of getting a better result and the winner is he or she who finishes their house first.

While this is principally just fun, the underlying aim is to communicate the sequence and elements of the design/construction process in a way that does not sound like a boring architect telling you how it should be done.

Lots to do, so need to get my skates on!

We had a meeting with one of our customers this morning in preparation for the project starting on-site in early September. It is quite a large project and the design is well advanced and has been 'established' for some time now. However at to-day's meeting we presented a computerised 3D view of how the main family living/kitchen/dining space will look and as a result, important design changes were made that probably would not have happened if the 3D modelling had not been done. Customers often feel that the additional expense of getting us to produce these computerised views (they can take several hours of work to produce) is unneccessary, but this case illustrates that the 4 hours of work that we charged for is terrifically good value when compared to many thousands of pounds that would have been incurred if these changes were to have been implemented once the construction had started.