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The Essential Guide » The Planning Stage » Can We Design Our Self Build Home Different From Homes & Buildings Around Us?
The text below is “un-edited” and “un checked” in its original draft format. It is included here as, even in this format, it could provide some useful help and advice.
We are working to edit, check and fully publish each section as soon as possible.
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Can we design something different from the buildings around us?
There are no specific rules governing what you can apply for Planning Permission for anywhere in the country. You can apply to build a bungalow next to a house, a house next to a factory, flats next to bungalows, a house in a field, - anything you want.
People from all over the country have been awarded Planning Permission for surprisingly differing designs to what is built around them (and self builders are notorious for creating estates which are a “hotch potch” of different designs). But then again, other people who may apply for Planning Permission for a house which is identical to the surrounding properties have been turned down.
So what are the rules? – Well to a certain extent, there aren’t actually any! – Just “guidelines” which vary from area to area. These guidelines will be used by each Planning Department to asses you application “on its own merits” to see how it fits in with the development plan they have for the particular area where your plot is situated.
How do we know if our design ideas will be accepted?
I have been designing and building houses for getting on for 25 years now. I have never had an application refused. Why? Simply because I have used a bit of “common sense” and have done a bit of research before I commit myself to any project and before I buy any land.
So, here are some ideas which might help you to find out what you can build on a plot which you may be thinking of buying, and might help to ensure that your first application is successful. (We will assume that you have found out that there is at least “Outline Planning Permission” on the land you are considering).
1) Look around the area. Are the properties “generally” of the type that you want to build? – This IS actually a fairly good indicator of what you are going to be allowed to build, BUT it is not the “be all and end all” of the process.
First of all: Are the buildings around you, actually “housing” or are they “office / industrial” buildings. If they are not housing, you may be in an area specifically earmarked business development. If you check the Outline Permission, you may find that it is for “industrial or Office” development and you simply will not be allowed to develop housing within the area.
If the properties around you are houses, you are on the “right track”, and, unless you have an idea to build a 5 storey architecturally designed glass structure, in the middle of a row of terraces, you will have at least have a fighting chance of succeeding.
2) Do the properties in the general area vary in design to any great extent? – Even up to some distance away? – One of the reasons that the Planning department has to be SO careful in what they allow to be built in an area, is that as soon as they give permission for something on one application, then they open the door to other people applying for something similar locally, on the premise that “They have been allowed it, - so we should be allowed it too!” If the immediate surrounding properties are not of the style that you want to build, but something locally is, maybe within a mile or so, is, then make a note of the address and some details of the property which you can then present as part of your “case” when you approach the Planning Office with any proposals.
3) Does common sense tell you that your property style and size would “fit in” to this location?
Once you have decided that you at least stand a chance of your application succeeding, then the next step is to try to get a clearer picture of the situation.
If you have a local “Professional Designer” “Draughtsman” or “Planning Consultant” helping you, you may find that they can give you some very useful advice about the history of Planning Applications in the area, and either give you confidence of success, or warn you of failure if you continue with your “theoretical proposals”.
You can also make request an appointment with the “Local Planning Officer” for the area where you can discuss your thoughts and get some “general ideas” of what is deemed to be “acceptable” and what is less likely to succeed as an application. – Note: What the Planning Officer cannot do is to tell you whether or not your application will succeed. They are simply not allowed to do so. They can listen to your ideas and give you “general nods” of broad agreement, or indicate general negative feelings about a particular design or aspect of a design. – The best you will in term of an indication as to whether your proposal will succeed or not will normally be a comment along the lines of “At this time I can’t see any reason why the application would fail”. – THAT’S what I look for! – If I hear that, my ears prick up.
What that statement means is that: “All things being equal, and if there is nothing that you have omitted to tell them that could jeopardise the situation, and if there are no strong local complaints, and no other presently unknown factors which come into play between now and when you apply, - then there is a good chance that your application will succeed”.
“A Good Chance” is as good as it gets in one of those meetings. – If you get any less commitment from the Officer than this, you can try to find out why they are not confident in the success of the application, but if you come away from the meeting thinking “I am not confident”, then your gut feeling will often be right.
After this meeting and taking advice from your designer, you have 2 options:
1) Rethink your plans and try to bring them in line with what the Planning Officer’s and possibly your own designers thoughts are.
That is what I would do, and that the main reason why I have never had a proposal turned down. If I ever get anything less than the “A good chance” line from a Planning Officer, I head back to the drawing board! – Why, because although I know that there is still possibly at least a reasonable chance of my application succeeding, I don’t want to risk going through the whole process of preparing drawings and information, paying designers and fees, waiting 3 – 4 months, and then being told that “Permission has not been granted”. – If that happened on my own project, I would think to myself, “I could have been in my new house by the time I go through the whole design and application process again”. If it happened on a clients project, they would lose confidence in my abilities and in me, and there is also the fact that at that stage, if they don’t actually own the land, they might just give up on the whole idea, or the land may get sold to someone else.
2) The other option if you get less than a positive indication from the planning Officer, is to apply for Planning Permission anyway, and see how you go.
If you have the time and can afford to go down this route, you may just find that you are successful. You will need to get together the full set of drawings and other information that you need for any Planning Application, and I personally would suggest may going straight for a “Reserved Matters” application ( your designer may disagree). The reason for going straight to “Reserved Matters”, is that if the application is sensitive, then the more of it you can get agreement to, the better. You would not want to get “Full Planning” on the property, then when you submit your choice of bricks, to be turned down because they are “Not in keeping with the development in the area”. – In sensitive applications, the less items that there are to go wrong the better, and a Reserved Matters application ties more loose ends up than does a Full Planning application.
Jumping 3 or 4 months down the line: - You have submitted your application. – If your plans for development ARE in any way sensitive, or unusual, you may, by now have been contacted by, or called in to the Planning Office on more than one occasion to discuss various individual matters. You may or may not have been able to deal with the problems satisfactorily. - You may have also been to the Planning meeting at which your proposal was discussed ( which as far as I am aware, is usually a public meeting which anyone can attend).
You go to get the post one morning, or contact the Planning Office personally to find out that your application has been turned down.
Once you have stood the telephone stand back up and retrieved the bits of the telephone itself which you launched at the wall at the opposite end of the hallway, and once you have calmed down, you then have another 3 options:
1) Give up!
2) Change your plans and start the process again
3) Appeal the decision.
None of those options are particularly appealing in this situation.
The principal in this case is not “can we build anything on the land”(in which case an appeal can be a good idea because it could result in you gaining at least Outline Planning and increasing the value of the land vastly). The principal here, in this situation has all along been “Can we build THIS particular structure HERE.
Once you have been through the whole process for possibly many months, and spent all the money that you have done, - and still been turned down, you may well be of a mind to give up. – You may think that if you appeal you will probably fail (and there is a good chance you are right), - and if you have to change the design now, the design won’t be what you originally wanted and fought for, and will seem like a poor substitute.
This scenario is one I would run a mile from. – I would try anything so that I don’t end up chucking that phone along the hallway!
If you come to the stage where the Planning Officer has given you anything but a positive response to your ideas, then I would recommend stopping right there and having a good think!
“Do we HAVE to have the house EXACTLY like that?”
“Can we take on board any of the Planners thoughts and remarks and make the changes without the overall project suffering too much?”
“Rather than going through months if wondering and worrying, is there any way we can increase our chances of getting what we want first time?”
“Is this the right project for us to be considering? – Shall we wait for the next one, which may give us EXACTLY what we want and where we want it?”
Going through that thought process might just be the way to save yourself a lot of time, money and heartache.
So the answer to the question at the top of the page is. “No, you don’t always have to build the same as what is around you. Variety is good. Take your ideas to the people who can guide you and advise you with regards to the plans chances of success. If they say that your chances are not good, then you may be better to either re think your ideas for that project, or look for another project. – If you decide to chance it, and go for it anyway, - then, when the decision is due, - get ready for a disappointment, and clear the hall of all furniture!”
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