London
CDM principal designer in Knightsbridge
The statutory CDM 2015 principal designer appointment, taken as a standalone service on Knightsbridge projects. Fixed fees, priced online, with the whole appointment handled through short structured forms and one site visit.
Short answer
If your project in Knightsbridge will involve more than one contractor, including subcontracted trades that never overlap, regulation 5 of CDM 2015 requires you to appoint a CDM principal designer in writing before construction begins. ClearCDM takes that appointment on residential and smaller commercial projects, on a fixed fee from £750 plus VAT. If nobody is appointed on a domestic project, regulation 7(2) puts the role on the designer in control of the pre-construction phase, whether or not anyone has discussed it.
Projects we take on in Knightsbridge
- Refurbishment and structural alteration of period houses
- Rear and side return extensions
- Loft conversions
- Flat and apartment refurbishment in converted or purpose built buildings
- Basement and lower ground floor works
- Small commercial and retail fit out
What tends to matter on Knightsbridge projects
Knightsbridge straddles the boundary between the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster, so which council's guidance applies depends on which side of the boundary a building sits. The stock is dense: stucco fronted terraces, mansion blocks and high value apartments, with commercial uses running through it.
- Two planning regimes across one area. Kensington and Chelsea's basements policy CL7 and its basements supplementary planning document apply on one side of the boundary. Westminster's own guidance applies on the other. It is worth establishing which before the design assumes anything.
- Basements and lightwells. Kensington and Chelsea's guidance notes that many streets in the borough are characterised by terraced housing with historic lightwells and railings that form part of the special character of the conservation area, and is careful about introducing new ones.
- Apartment refurbishment in occupied blocks. Shared cores, lifts, escape routes and landlord services, with residents in place throughout.
- Public protection. Busy footways and short frontages, so hoardings, scaffold and loading are constrained and have to be planned rather than found.
What we checked for this page is listed under sources at the foot. Where a statement could not be checked against the council or Historic England it is not on the page, and none of this says every project in Knightsbridge involves all of it.
How the appointment runs
Five steps, short forms, one site visit. The appointment in writing, structured forms to everybody involved, a visit to record the building as it is, the design risks coordinated, and the pre-construction information issued to whoever is pricing and building before work starts. The full process, and what the role covers.
Fees
Fixed fees from £750 plus VAT, read off a published schedule rather than taken as a percentage of your build. The same starting fees apply wherever the project is, and the figure on your confirmed quote is the figure you are invoiced: there is no expenses line and nothing is added afterwards. The fee schedule.
This is the CDM role, not the Building Regulations one
Since October 2023 England has had a second principal designer role, under Part 2A of the Building Regulations 2010. It is a separate appointment about designing to meet the Building Regulations, and ClearCDM does not provide it. Most projects that need one need both. The difference in full.
Pre-construction information for a Knightsbridge building
The pack for a project here tends to be short and specific. What earns its place is the handful of things nobody could work out from the drawings: the asbestos position for a building of this age, what is actually loadbearing and in what order it can come out, where the services run, who is on the other side of each wall, whether anyone is living in the building while it is opened up, and how the scaffold and the skip reach the work.
How we build the pack, or generate a checklist for your own project.
Questions we get asked in Knightsbridge
Are your fees different for a Knightsbridge project?
No. The published starting fees are the same wherever the project is, and the figure on your confirmed quote is the figure you are invoiced. We work from Bristol and do not have a London office, which we would rather say than pretend otherwise.
Who appoints the principal designer on a Knightsbridge flat refurbishment?
The client, in writing, wherever more than one contractor is involved. If the flat is your own home you are a domestic client and regulation 7 moves most of your other duties to the principal contractor. If you are a landlord, the work is connected with a business and the full client duties in regulation 4 stay with you.
Nearby
Sources
- CDM 2015, regulation 5 legislation.gov.uk
- CDM 2015, regulation 7 legislation.gov.uk
- HSE: principal designers, roles and responsibilities hse.gov.uk
- Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: conservation areas 73 per cent of the borough
- Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: basements supplementary planning document, April 2016 local plan policy CL7
- Westminster City Council: conservation areas
Price your Knightsbridge project
A few questions about the works and you have a fixed fee in about two minutes, and the figure you see is the figure you are invoiced.
Get an instant quote →Not sure yet? check whether the appointment is required at all.