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Q&As
Can a new home be built in the garden of an existing property?
What is the latest in Government-proposed legislation about building a two-storey, self-contained residential house in a back garden on the edge of a conservation area? Our main house is four storeys; the proposal occupies slightly less than half of the back garden. The garden is enclosed by a brick wall dating from 1867.
One Answer
The government is very keen to deliver new housing and there are lots of headlines in the media about planning controls becoming increasingly relaxed. However, there have not been any major changes when it comes to the ability of individual homeowners to build a separate house in their back garden.
The main change is the reintroduction of housing targets – if your local planning authority cannot show a five-year supply of housing or they have failed the government’s Housing Delivery Test, it is harder ‒ but not impossible ‒ for them to turn down applications for new homes.
For the most part, your chances of getting permission for a house on your land are likely to be the same as they were under the previous government and, while more planning reform is likely, it may not help very much with individual small sites like yours.
The key factor that determines whether you can build is if you meet relevant planning policies. It is more difficult to get permission for new homes outside of settlement boundaries, such as in flood zones or in the Green Belt, for instance.
If you are in ‒ or close to ‒ a conservation area, the council will expect a very high quality of architectural design in your new home. The planners will also want to see that there is no harm to neighbours, protected species and trees, and that you have enough parking.
These considerations are standard in applications for new homes and aren’t really affected by top-level government reforms, that often mostly benefit large house building companies.
To work through these standard planning issues, you would be best to get some advice from a knowledgeable local planning consultant or architect and consider making an approach to the council for some pre-application advice.