Do I need a Construction Management Plan in Tower Hamlets?

For most Strategic and Major schemes, yes: the council attaches a Code of Construction Practice condition requiring a CMP and a Site Environmental Management Plan, on its own templates, to be approved before any work starts. Its validation list also asks for a Construction Environmental Management Plan with major applications and with minor works, including basements, likely to affect neighbours’ amenity or obstruct the highway. Basement and minor schemes may need a CMP too, depending on their complexity.

How much does the Tower Hamlets CMP Service charge?

Major developments pay a fee before the council will review their CMP and SEMP: £10,000 one-off for small schemes (10–34 homes or 1,000–9,999 sq m), £25,000 a year for medium schemes (35–149 homes or 10,000–14,999 sq m) and £45,000 a year for strategic schemes (150 or more homes or 15,000 sq m or more), with the final banding at the CMP officer’s discretion. Highway licences, CG300 technical approval and Section 61 dispensation or variation charges are separate.

What are the construction working hours in Tower Hamlets?

For permissions granted since April 2023, noisy work is allowed 8am–6pm Monday to Friday only, with none on Saturdays, Sundays or bank holidays; Saturday working needs a Section 61 dispensation. Piling, excavation, demolition and other high impact activities are limited to 9am–12 noon and 2pm–5.30pm on weekdays, and construction vehicles to 9.30am–4.30pm (9.30am–3pm in term time near schools). Sites approved before April 2023 follow the 2006 Code, which allows 8am–1pm on Saturdays.

How long does Tower Hamlets take to approve a CMP?

The CMP Service’s response period is 40 working days, and every resubmission gets the same period again, so the signed checklist, CMP and SEMP must go in at least 40 working days before work is due to start. The fee must be paid before review begins, neighbours must have had at least 21 working days to comment on the draft beforehand, and formal discharge by the planning team follows the CMP Officer’s countersignature. Temporary road closures take a further nine weeks and need the discharged CMP.

Construction Management Plans in Tower Hamlets

Tower Hamlets manages construction through its Code of Construction Practice 2023 and a dedicated, fee-charging CMP Service that reviews, approves and monitors Construction Management Plans and Site Environmental Management Plans from demolition to handover. Most major schemes pay the service fee before any review, submit on the council’s own templates at least 40 working days before starting, and work to hours that allow no noisy work on Saturdays. Here is how the system works.

Tower Hamlets at a glance

Working hours: 8am–6pm Mon–Fri; no noisy work on Saturdays
Submit: At least 40 working days before work starts
Document: CMP and SEMP on council templates, plus signed checklist
Council fees: CMP Service: £10,000 one-off to £45,000 a year

On this page

Tower Hamlets’ Code of Construction Practice 2023

Tower Hamlets’ cabinet approved the current Code of Construction Practice (CoCP) for adoption on 26 April 2023, replacing a Code last updated in 2006. The Code is written as guidance, but it is secured through a pre-commencement planning condition (the CoCP condition) on the basis of Local Plan 2031 policies, chiefly Policy D.SG4 on the planning and construction of new development. Because the 2023 Code tightened working hours, the council runs both Codes side by side: permissions granted before April 2023 follow the 2006 Code, later permissions follow the 2023 Code, and amendments to pre-April 2023 permissions can have the 2023 hours imposed.

Every site is assigned a category through the planning application, and the category sets the extent of neighbour liaison, monitoring and submissions required:

Strategic: 100 or more homes, 10,000 sq m or more, sites over 10 hectares, buildings above 30m, or 200 or more car parking spaces
Major: 10 or more homes (or a residential site over 0.5 hectares), or 1,000 sq m or more of non-residential floorspace (or a site over 1 hectare)
Minor: development below the major thresholds, including householder schemes
Basement: a new or extended basement that is not part of a Strategic or Major scheme, which may be asked for a CMP depending on the works

When a CMP Is Required and How Approval Works

Tower Hamlets’ local validation list asks for a Construction Environmental Management Plan with all major applications and with minor works, including basements, likely to affect neighbours’ amenity or cause obstructions or hazards on the public highway. After permission, the CoCP condition is discharged through the council’s CMP Service, which requires a CMP and a Site Environmental Management Plan (SEMP) for most Strategic and Major schemes, and for minor schemes depending on their complexity. Applicants must use the council’s own CMP and SEMP templates.

The signed CoCP Checklist, CMP and SEMP go to the CMP Officer at least 40 working days before work is due to start, and the same 40-working-day response period applies again to every iteration and resubmission. The fee must be paid before the officer will engage with the documents, and an incomplete submission is treated as invalid. Once Environmental Health and Highways have approved the documents, the CMP Officer countersigns the checklist, the applicant sends it with the approved CMP and SEMP to the planning case officer, and work can start only after formal written discharge. Starting earlier is treated as a breach of the planning permission and leads to enforcement action.

Two things must be in place before the first draft is even submitted: the principal contractor must already be appointed, and neighbours must have been consulted on the draft. The Code asks for at least 21 working days for responses, from every property on the site’s street and any adjoining it, plus businesses, schools and health centres, residents’ associations and ward councillors, with an appendix to the CMP recording who was consulted, what they said and what changed as a result.

The checklist sets out the three documents to be submitted:

A Construction Management Plan, including a Construction Traffic Management Plan (Strategic and Major sites also provide a Construction Logistics Plan on the CLOCS CLP template)
A SEMP in three parts: noise and vibration, dust and air quality, and site waste
An application for Section 61 prior consent under the Control of Pollution Act 1974

CMP Service Fees

All major developments pay a CMP Service fee when applying to discharge the CoCP condition. It is invoiced and paid by card before any review, and highway licences, CG300 technical approval for structures next to the highway and Section 61 dispensation or variation charges are all separate. The fee is banded by scheme size, with the final banding at the CMP officer’s discretion on location and complexity:

Small (10–34 homes or 1,000–9,999 sq m non-residential): £10,000, one-off
Medium (35–149 homes or 10,000–14,999 sq m): £25,000 per year
Strategic (150 or more homes or 15,000 sq m or more): £45,000 per year

Construction Working Hours in Tower Hamlets

Under the 2023 Code, work audible at the site boundary is permitted 8am–6pm Monday to Friday only, with no noisy work at any time on Saturdays, Sundays or bank holidays; Saturday working needs a Section 61 dispensation. High impact activities, including piling, excavation and demolition, are restricted further to 9am–12 noon and 2pm–5.30pm on weekdays. Construction vehicle movements are limited to 9.30am–4.30pm on weekdays, and to 9.30am–3pm in term time where a school is near the site or on its access routes; vehicles may arrive from 8am only if they can be accommodated on site, waiting with engines off. Sites approved under the 2006 Code keep its 8am–1pm Saturday allowance.

Noise, Dust and Air Quality

Strategic and Major sites must obtain Section 61 prior consent, and the council must decide a complete application within 28 days of receipt. Their SEMPs need a noise risk assessment using the London (LANAF) good practice method, a baseline noise survey and noise predictions, and continuous noise and vibration monitoring with real-time alarms, reported to the council monthly. Minor and basement sites do not usually need a Section 61 consent unless they propose noisy work outside normal hours, but a basement contractor without one may be served a Section 60 notice before starting.

The whole borough has been an Air Quality Management Area since 2000. Strategic and Major schemes submit a Dust Management Plan based on an air quality and dust risk assessment, approved by the council’s Air Pollution Team before any work starts. The SEMP template sets the standard:

Real-time PM10 monitoring on every medium or high dust-risk site: two monitors for medium risk, four for high risk
Monitors operational at least three months before works start and kept running for the whole development, with monthly reports to the council
Non-Road Mobile Machinery between 37kW and 560kW registered on the London NRMM register before work starts, with higher emission standards applying in the Central Activity Zone and Canary Wharf
Registration with the Considerate Constructors Scheme, which Local Plan Policy D.SG4 expects of all major development

Construction Logistics, Highways and Licences

Tower Hamlets is a CLOCS Champion, and every vehicle servicing a construction site in the borough must meet FORS Silver and the CLOCS Standard. The CMP must show HGV routes to and from the TfL Road Network (recording preliminary discussions with TfL where the site is on or next to it), swept paths, holding areas and a delivery booking system, with every delivery booked at least 24 hours ahead and no lorries held or parked on the highway. Strategic and Major sites with more than 50m of hoarding in place for over six months must green at least 30% of its length. Highway consents are separate from the CMP and have their own lead times and charges:

Scaffold and hoarding licences: apply at least 10 working days ahead (the Code allows up to 30 working days for approval); the price is set after a pre-inspection, with a published highway occupancy fee of £487 a month or £390 a week, and £5 million public liability insurance is required
Temporary road closures (TTROs): nine weeks from payment, and the application must include the discharged CMP
Mobile cranes and MEWPs: at least two weeks, rising to at least nine weeks where a highway closure is needed, with outriggers kept off the footway
Parking bay suspensions (charges from 21 September 2026): £200 application fee plus £90 per bay per day, at least seven working days’ notice (ten days for more than two weeks or more than 10 spaces), and a maximum of six months before a temporary traffic order is needed
Skip licences: £33 for up to 7 days, £71 for 8–14 days and £79 for 15–28 days, plus £63 per occupied parking space per day

Basements, Heritage and the Isle of Dogs

The Local Plan 2031 requires every basement development to carry out a basement impact assessment showing structural stability, safety from flooding and no adverse effect on local hydrogeology. That matters in Tower Hamlets because large parts of the borough, including the Isle of Dogs and the Lower Lea Valley, lie in flood zones 2 and 3a. Under the Code, basement schemes need a BS 5228 method statement alongside the noise and vibration plan, and are advised to agree any monitoring with the council before starting. Schemes affecting listed buildings or conservation areas should take advice from the council’s Conservation Officer before applying, and trees in conservation areas are protected as if covered by a Tree Preservation Order.

On the Isle of Dogs, the 2021 Isle of Dogs Neighbourhood Plan (Policy CC2) requires developers to communicate with residents before changing approved working hours or methods. Developers must also attend the relevant council Construction Forum: the Isle of Dogs Construction Forum (formerly the Marsh Wall Construction Forum, meeting since July 2021) or the City Fringe and East of the Borough Construction Forum, both held online every six weeks. A replacement Local Plan 2023–2038 was submitted for examination in February 2026, but its hearings were postponed in July 2026, so the 2031 plan’s policies still apply.

How CMP Construct Helps in Tower Hamlets

CMP Construct prepares council-compliant Construction Management Plans across Tower Hamlets and more than 20 London boroughs. We draft most plans within 7–10 working days, submit in the format Tower Hamlets Council expects, and handle officer comments through to discharge of your condition. Where your condition also asks for a Construction Traffic Management Plan (CTMP), a Construction Logistics Plan (CLP) or a Construction Environmental Management Plan (CEMP), we produce them as one consistent package. New to the process? Start with our complete guide to Construction Management Plans or see what a CMP costs.

Official Tower Hamlets Guidance

The council documents below set out Tower Hamlets Council's own requirements. We work to these day to day; they are linked here so you can verify any requirement directly: