Our Urban Greening Factor Assessment Process: Simple, Practical and Affordable
UGF Assessments from £450 | Fixed Fees | Fast Turnaround
Need an Urban Greening Factor (UGF) Assessment for your planning application? At Landscape Ally, we aim to make the process as straightforward as possible, providing clear, professional UGF Plans and calculations, together with practical advice to help your development achieve the required planning targets.
Whether you're a homeowner preparing a planning application or an architect working on behalf of a client, our approach is simple. We work with the plans you already have, identify opportunities to improve the UGF score and prepare the information needed to support your planning submission.
And importantly, we don't just calculate your score and leave you to work out what to do if it falls short.
How Does Our UGF Assessment Process Work?
1. Send Us Your Plans
Most clients come to us once they or their architect have developed a proposed layout for their property, including the building footprint, driveway and external spaces, such as front and rear gardens. Simply send us your proposed drawings, together with any supporting information you already have. This might include landscape plans, topographical surveys, tree surveys or ecological information. We'll review the proposals and provide a fixed-fee quotation based on the size and complexity of your project.
For a typical single dwelling with a straightforward front and rear garden arrangement, our fees start from £450.
2. We Review Your Proposals and Assess the UGF Score
Once appointed, we review the proposed external layout, identify the relevant Urban Greening Factor categories and measure the different surfaces and greening features. These might include trees, planted borders, lawns, green roofs, permeable paving and hard landscaping. Each category contributes differently to the overall UGF score. We then calculate the proposed score and assess it against the relevant local planning policy requirements.
3. We Help You Improve the Score
This is where our service goes beyond simply producing a calculation.
In our experience, initial layouts rarely achieve the required UGF target score first time. Often, the proposals have been developed without fully considering how different planting and surface treatments contribute to the calculation. Rather than simply presenting a score that falls short, we identify practical ways to improve it. This might involve introducing additional planting, adjusting the balance between hard and soft landscaping, incorporating trees or exploring opportunities for green roofs and other greening measures where appropriate.
Our standard fixed fee includes an allowance for this advice. We'll explain the opportunities, suggest realistic improvements and work with you to achieve, or get as close as reasonably possible to, the required target without unnecessarily compromising the wider design. Once we've agreed the proposed approach with you, we prepare the draft UGF Plan and calculation.
4. You Review the Draft, and We Finalise the Assessment
We'll send you the draft UGF Assessment so you and your architect can review the proposed layout and confirm you're happy with the recommendations. Any agreed adjustments are then incorporated into the final drawing, ready to accompany your planning application. Our typical output is a single, professionally prepared drawing containing a colour-coded Urban Greening Factor Plan and the corresponding UGF calculation, together with concise establishment and maintenance notes. By bringing everything together on one sheet, we make the assessment clear, easy to follow and straightforward for the local planning authority to review.
How Long Does a UGF Assessment Take?
We understand that planning applications often operate to tight deadlines, particularly when a UGF Assessment has been requested late in the process. Our standard process typically takes around one-two weeks from appointment to the final drawing, including the opportunity to review and agree any recommended changes. If you're working to a tighter deadline, we can often help. Subject to availability, the complexity of the proposals and receiving all the necessary information, we can complete assessments in as little as two working days.
How Much Does a UGF Assessment Cost?
Our Urban Greening Factor Assessments start from £450, with a fixed fee agreed before we begin. For straightforward residential projects involving a single dwelling and typical front and rear garden arrangements, you can generally expect the fee to be around this level. Larger or more complex developments are quoted individually, so you'll know the cost before committing.
A UGF Assessment That Does More Than Tick a Planning Box
At Landscape Ally, we believe an Urban Greening Factor Assessment should be more than a numerical exercise. It's an opportunity to make small, thoughtful improvements that help a development satisfy planning requirements while creating greener, more attractive and more sustainable outdoor spaces. Our approach combines professional landscape architecture expertise, practical design advice and clear presentation, helping you move through the planning process with greater confidence.
Need a UGF Assessment for your planning application?
Send us your architect's plans or proposed site layout and we'll review the information and provide a fixed-fee quotation.