20 Things You Can Do - No Planning Required

There is a huge range of new buildings, alterations and extensions that can be built without needing anything but building regulations consent. This is known as ‘Permitted Development’ and is probably the most useful piece of planning jargon to understand. You should make sure that you know what you can and cannot do. There are loopholes that will allow you to maximise the opportu­nities available. Please bear in mind that the freedoms you have do not apply to listed buildings and are restricted in some areas. Some of these freedoms can also be removed by conditions placed on existing approvals but in most cases there are lots of improvements that can be made without needing planning.

1. Inside
Rearranging the interior of a house to create or subdivide rooms using parti­tion walls does not need planning permis­sion. Inser­ting or removing floors does not need per­mis­sion. So if you are look­ing at a barn conver­sion, it may have been designed with large areas of vertical space, this may look good but does not always make for efficient use of the building’s space and may not always be practical. Inserting new floors to create the additional rooms does not need planning permission.

2. Windows & Doors
It is a surprise to most people when they realise that no permission is needed to create new windows or doors in an existing house. Regardless of whether a new first or ground floor window might cause over­looking or be objected to, it does not need permission. This creates endless possi­bil­i­ties to take advantage of existing views, improve the outlook and feel of existing rooms and to entirely rearrange the way a house is used and laid out internally. So if an existing house doesn’t suit or an approved house plan could be improved, there is plenty of potential scope in changing the windows and door positions.

3. Attached Buildings
Existing non-habitable parts of a house, such as integral garages, out­hous­es and other attached buildings, can be con­vert­ed into part of a house without permis­sion. There are plenty of 1960s houses built with integral garages which can be massively improved by incorpo­rating this space into the ground floor. There are numer­ous Victorian houses with attached outbuild­ings to the rear to which the same applies.

4. Loft conversions
Utilising an existing roof space to create additional rooms does not require permission. Loft space takes up a large unused percent­age of most houses and converting it is an efficient and cost-effective way of transfor­ming a house. The necessary staircase and other internal changes can all be done without the need to consult with the planners. This applies equally to new houses as to existing ones. So bear this in mind when look­ing at an approved design for a new house on an existing plot — could it be improved by creating a third storey?

5. Rooflights
The insertion of rooflights in any existing roof does not require permission. So a roof conversion becomes a real possibility even if the space is quite limited; the fire escape necessary for building relations can some­times be created through an enlarged rooflight. Existing single storey ground floor rooms like kitchens and living rooms can be made much lighter and more airy by opening up the ceiling to expose the roof and the insertion of rooflights.

6. Roof extensions
If rooflights cannot give you enough light, or you need additional roof height to insert a staircase or to make more useable space, it is pos­sible to build dormer windows and extend the size of the roof without permission. The max­i­­mum permitted size of such roof exten­sions is 50 cubic metres (40m3 for terraced houses). This additional space can only be used to enlarge a prop­erty until the maximum is reached and once used up any further additions will need permis­sion. This principle also applies to other sorts of additions.

7. Single Storey Extensions and Conservatories
Provided a house has not been extended before – or since 1947 if it was built before that date – it can be enlarged by a total of 15 per cent of its volume or 70m3. This additional space includes roof extensions. For very large houses the 15 per cent may be larger than this 70m3 and the maximum is then 115m3. At single storey level a pitched roof should not be higher than four metres to the ridge, or three metres for a flat roof. Such extensions should bring the house no closer to an existing road than it is at present (unless it would be further than 20 metres away from the boundary of the property). 70m3 is a pretty big extension – about the size of a large single garage – and by using your Permitted Development Rights in this way you can make big improvements.

8. Two Storey Extensions
It is possible to use the 15 per cent permitted increase in volume to create a two-storey extension, provided the roof height is no higher than the existing house and, if within two metres of the boundary, it should not exceed four metres. This means that, provided the boundary is not too close, it’s possible to build above a single storey garage or annexe to create new bedrooms or bath­rooms without needing planning permission.

9. Outbuildings
The construction and use of detached buildings in the garden of a house offers huge possibilities for the creation of additional space. Although the right to build outbuildings is restricted in Conservation Areas and AONB it is not restricted in green belt areas and offers real potential to make other­wise very restricted plots much more useful. There is no actual limit to the floor-space you can create with outbuildings in the garden. This is provided that they do not cover more than half the garden area or exceed four metres in height with a pitched roof or three metres with a flat roof. The uses that they can be put to are very wide and limited only in the same way as the use of the house itself. This is provided that the house and its garden and outbuildings are only occupied as one residence.

So the best way of thinking about outbuildings is to consider them as parts of the house — simply detached and located in the garden. Their uses can include a games room, study, home office, additional lounge, work­shop, laundry, guest bedrooms etc. The fact that such outbuildings are built to resi­dential standards, with cavity wall insulation and so forth does not affect the need for planning permission. Provided such outbuild­ings are further than five metres from the house, not situated between the house and any road and do not cover more than 50 per cent of the garden there are no limits in the area of floor space created. It’s hard to understand why more people do not take advantage of the possibilities they offer.

10. Detached Annexes
It is not possible to use outbuild­ings to create new independent dwellings — this would be to estab­lish separate building plots needing planning permission. How­ever, this does not prevent the use of existing out­buildings for additional accommodation pro­­vid­­ed it is used in a close associa­tion with – and not indepen­dently of – the main house. If an out­build­ing is used to house an elderly relative, with their own kitchen and bathroom, provided they are genuinely depen­dent on the occupants of the main house and spend time within the main house, planning permission should not be required.

There are obviously grey areas involved and it does to some extent depend on the behaviour and nature of the occupant of the annexe as much as the size and separation of that building from the house. So, whilst the use of a detached out­build­ing to house an 85 year old disabled dependant relative would not need planning permission, to rent that building to an unrelat­ed 18 year old student with their own car and separate life would. For peace of mind, residential uses of this kind should be formally agreed with the planning department as not needing permission.

11. Work from Home
Planning permission is not required to run a small business from your home, provided that the primary and predominant use of the house remains as a dwelling. It is very difficult to make hard and fast statements as to when running a business from home would cross the threshold and actually need permission. This is because a lot depends on how it could affect neighbours or change the char­ac­ter of the house. For example, having a small office in an outbuilding that contains little more than a computer is very different from running a car repair and spraying busi­ness from that same building. The amount of noise, traffic, visitors and the existence of employees are all highly relevant. In today’s hi-tech world, many businesses can exist invisibly within houses or in outbuildings in the garden without involving any change of use in planning terms.

12. Integral Annexe
Whether created by subdividing a house or by building an exten­sion with or without planning permission, it is perfectly possible to create an integral self-contained annexe within a house. The same com­ments apply as to the creation of an annexe in the garden because the issue is about the creation of a separate dwelling. The subdivision of a house into flats does need per­mission. That said, the creation of a granny annexe within a wing of a house is possible. It may have its own kitchen, bath­room, lounge and access and would be a very useful addition for many families who wanted to house an elderly relative — and it should not need to be delayed or complicated by the involvement of planning. If permission is needed for the build­ing involved, describing it as an extension is perfectly reasonable and accurate.

13. Two Houses into One
Although creating two houses on a plot or subdividing a house into flats requires planning permission, the reverse situation does not. To combine a pair of semi-detached houses into one detached house does not need planning permission. This can be very helpful in some areas where large houses are in short supply. Current planning policies are seeking to maximise densities on land in urban areas and large plots can be difficult to achieve in these circumstances. Combining two approved dwellings into one can be a solution — although be aware that to revert back two dwellings would require permission.

14. Additional Land
Permission is needed to change agricultural land into garden land and this can be difficult to achieve. But opportunities still continue to arise in rural areas where farmers are happy to sell bits of land to homeowners. Planning permission may be difficult to achieve to extend a gar­den because of concerns about the erosion of the country­side and the creation of new building plots through incre­men­tal growth. There is, however, nothing to prevent you from own­ing a parcel of agri­cultural land adja­cent to your property. The issue then becomes what you’re actual­ly able to do with it. The answer is pretty much any­thing agricul­tural as long as it is not used as a garden. So agricultural activities such as growing vege­ta­bles and planting trees are accept­able, but planting flowers, mowing the lawn and playing tennis are not. Retaining a physi­cal barrier such as a fence or hedge between your approved garden and additional land is a good way of demonstrat­ing that you have not incorporated it into your curtilage. Of course you can still benefit from owning the addi­tional land as it protects your view, pre­vents anyone else building on it, and you can use it to grow vegetables or plant trees for fruit.

15. Swimming Pools
If you would like a pond in the garden simply to attract wildlife, or if you want a full swimming pool for summer parties, neither needs planning permission. A covered swimming pool falls within the same restric­­tions as outbuildings and an open swimming pool can be as large as you want — provided it doesn’t cover more than half the total area of the garden.

16. Gates, walls and fences
The look of a house and the privacy you enjoy can be radically affected by the walls and fences that surround it. Walls and fences generally do not need per­mis­sion on the boundary provided they are no more than 2 metres in height, or no more than one metre where they are adjacent to a road. Within a garden, which could in theory be one inch in from the boundary, it is OK to construct walls or fences or other means of enclosure up to three metres high. This is provided that no more than half the garden is so enclosed. This means that, provided the garden is big enough, you can have a tennis court with three metre high fencing or you can create three metre high screening from neighbours. It is important to remember that where you are simply replacing an existing fence or wall, regardless of its height, permission will not be needed.

17. New Accesses
No permission is needed to create a new vehicular access onto a residential property from an unclas­sified road. You can check the status of a road at the local plan­ning authority. Most roads are not classified. It is usually easy to tell those that are as they are either ‘B’ roads or other major roads that actually go some­where. Cul-de-sacs and most minor village roads are not classified. Having a separate and independent access will often make a house far more attractive and desirable than having to share one. If the new access is from your house on to an adopted road it is normally necessary to agree the technical specification for dropping the kerb with the Highway Authority.

18. Parking Areas
The creation of hardstandings within the garden of a house do not require permission. This could in theory include the whole garden and it does enable off street parking and turning to be created. There are occa­sions where planning permis­sion can be refused for extensions due to limited off street parking, even where it is possible to create additional parking in the garden. But the plan­ners may not wish to encourage the loss of green areas for parking. However, as permis­sion is not needed to create the necessary parking, this kind of reason for refusal is easy to overcome by making sure the parking is available before making the application.

19. Cladding and Tile Hanging
Outside conservation areas, per­mission is not needed to clad, hang tiles on or render a house. Any of these methods can be an effec­tive way of integrating an extension with existing property or upgrading the appearance of an entire house that has been badly extended in the past. So if you are consider­ing a major renova­tion opportunity bear this in mind. If you want to reposition windows and doors, extend it at ground or first floor level and convert the roof, all these modifi­ca­tions can be integrated into an overall design by completely changing the appearance of the house through painting, cladding or rendering.

20. Minor Amendments
There is also a way to modify an existing planning approval without the need to apply for a new permis­sion — by making a minor amendment to the scheme. It is also important to be aware that if you want to depart from the approved plans of a pro­posed house to take advantage of permitted development, the changes will need to be agreed as minor amend­ments to the approval. This is because technically you only benefit from these rights once a house is substantially complete. It would obviously be a pretty unreasonable approach by the council to refuse a minor amendment for something that you can simply do anyway once the house is completed. Nonetheless, it can save mistakes and hassle if you get the written agreement of the council before you do it — as well as a lot of money.