An outside view of your self-assessment.
A self-assessment records your own team’s considered position. An Independent Design Review Panel Assessment brings an outside one.
The two services
Independent Design Review Panel Assessment — £4,750 + VAT.
Desk-based review, concluding in the Panel’s Design Review Panel Certificate.
Premium — £6,950 + VAT.
The desk-based review extended with a site visit and a Panel discussion with your design team.
Panel bookings and enquiries are made from a finalised self-assessment in your account. Every booking is confirmed by us within 3 working days before any reviewer is approached; an enquiry places no order and takes no payment.
The Panel aims to issue its certificate 14 working days after the latest of our confirming the booking, receiving cleared payment and receiving the information for review. Where a deadline will not wait, either assessment can be expedited to 7 working days for £975 + VAT, subject to Panel availability.
Both are limited to consideration of the scheme against the twelve Building for a Healthy Life considerations. Neither is professional advice, and neither guarantees planning permission or any other approval.
The Design Review Panel reviews your completed Building for a Healthy Life self-assessment, together with the supporting material submitted with it, and considers the scheme against the same twelve considerations. It reaches its own conclusion and issues its own Design Review Panel Certificate.
The Panel may agree with your self-assessment. It may not. Divergence is expected and normal. One is your team’s own view of its scheme; the other is an outside view of that view. If they always matched, the second would be worth nothing.
When it earns its place
- Design quality is a significant issue for the application.
- The authority has asked for independent design input.
- Your self-assessment has raised areas you would rather address with outside eyes on them.
- The scheme is strong, and you would like that position set out by someone other than yourself before submission.
How the two fit together
The self-assessment comes first — a Panel review is a review of it. Completing one means any Panel assessment starts from a scheme already described in the framework’s own terms, which makes better use of the Panel’s time and yours.
What the NPPF says
“The local planning authority should:
a. Ensure that they have access to, and encourage the appropriate use of design review and other design tools and processes (especially for strategic sites and other significant projects), and take into account their outcomes, including any design recommendations made by design review panels”
Building for a Healthy Life is named in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government's draft Design and Placemaking Planning Practice Guidance (published for consultation in 2026, and not yet in force) as a design assessment tool that "can support pre-application discussions".
Any weight given is a matter for the decision-maker.
Disclosure and independence
The Design Review Panel and BHL Assessments Ltd are connected companies under common ownership. An Independent Design Review Panel Assessment is carried out by the Panel’s own reviewers; its findings are reached independently and are not contingent on any self-assessment outcome recorded in this tool or on the fee paid.
This is the part that matters, and it is set out in full on the About and governance page: the reviewers are unpaid volunteers, the owner of both companies takes no part in reviews arising from this tool, panellists declare conflicts and are bound by their professional codes and the Nolan Principles, and the Panel’s fee does not depend on what it finds. Read how independence is protected →