Gardner Leader

Stuart Durrant, Conveyancing Partner at Gardner Leader Solicitors, examines the changes to planning permission that have made it easier for home-owners to improve their home.

I have no doubt that things are picking up for the housing market in Newbury. There is far more activity than there was a few months ago, and good family homes in good locations are still in high demand.

Some people will, however, decide to stay put and may find that extending or altering their existing home to be preferable, and perhaps cheaper than moving.

Since October last year, extending a home has become easier for many people with the introduction of new planning rules which mean that the majority of homeowners may no longer need to get planning permission to extend their home.

The changes allow people to extend their home upwards and outwards for the first time without needing to pay the costs (up to £1,000) or go through the bureaucratic hurdles of the planning system and wait weeks to get planning permission to start building.

Under the new regulations an extension or addition to your home is considered to be a permitted development, not requiring an application for planning permission, subject to the following limits and conditions:

·                     No more than half the area of land around the "original house" (which means as built or as it was in July 1948) is to be covered by additions or other buildings.

·                     No extension is to be forward of the principal elevation or side elevation fronting a highway.

·                     No extension is to be higher than the highest part of the roof.

·                     The maximum depth of a single-storey rear extension is three metres for an attached house and four metres for a detached house.

·                     The maximum height of a single-storey rear extension is four metres.

·                     The maximum depth of a rear extension of more than one storey is three metres, including the ground floor.

·                     The maximum eaves height of an extension within two metres of the boundary is three metres.

·                     The maximum eaves and ridge height of an extension is to be no higher than the existing house.

·                     Side extensions to be single storey with a maximum height of four metres and width no more than half that of the original house.

·                     Two-storey extensions to be no closer than seven metres to rear boundary.

·                     Roof pitch of extensions higher than one storey to match existing house.

·                     Materials to be similar in appearance to the existing house.

·                     Verandas, balconies or raised platforms are not permitted.

·                     Upper-floor, side-facing windows to be obscure-glazed and any opening to be 1.7m above the floor.

·                     On designated land (conservation areas, National Parks etc) development for rear extensions of more than one storey are not permitted.

·                     On designated land, cladding of the exterior is not permitted.

·                     On designated land, side extensions are not permitted.

Building regulation requirements are largely unaffected by these changes and would need to be complied with as usual.

I also found amongst the new regulations a change to the rules for householders wanting to pave over their front gardens.

The serious flooding in 2007 caused loss of life and damage estimated at about £3bn. In many cases flooding happened because drains could not cope with the amount of rain water flowing to them. Climate change means that this kind of heavy rainfall and flooding may occur more often in the future. The drains in most urban areas were built many years ago and were not designed to cope with increased rainfall. More water is entering the drains from new developments and paving front gardens adds to the problem.

Under the new regulations, planning permission is not needed if the new driveway uses permeable (or porous) surfacing that allows water to drain through, (such as gravel, permeable concrete block paving or porous asphalt), or if the rain water is directed to a lawn or border to drain naturally.

If the surface to be covered is more than five square metres, planning permission will be needed for laying traditional, impermeable driveways that do not control rainwater running off onto roads.

These changes should allow the home-owner who needs that extra space a real choice between moving and extending, as they largely remove the cost and time delays that the old system imposed.