Win planning on rural plots
Plots and planning expert Mike Dade shares his insider secrets on how to win planning permission to create your dream home on a rural plot
Planning consultant Mike Dade provides his insider tips and tricks for obtaining planning consent in the countryside
Creating a new home in the countryside is the goal for many self builders. But it’s also the source of much confusion and misunderstanding over when and where you can build. On the one hand, new development in the countryside seems incredibly difficult, but on the other, we’ve all seen houses pop up here and there in rural locations. So, what are the circumstances where you can get permission for that dream home?
What is the countryside?
It’s important to understand that, in planning terms, the countryside is usually defined in councils’ Local Plans as all of the area outside the boundaries of settlements. Most
Local Plans include maps (sometimes referred to as inset maps) that show the settlements and the planning boundaries around them. Some smaller villages and hamlets might not have these boundaries, so they’re automatically defined as countryside.
Boundaries tend to be drawn tightly around the built core of settlements and might exclude areas of low density housing around the periphery. This means it’s quite possible for a plot to be surrounded by other houses but still be defined as being in the countryside for planning purposes. Not all councils indicate the demarcations on maps, in which case a potential site would be assessed individually.
Countryside can also be subject to special designations, including green belt, areas of outstanding natural beauty (AONB) and national parks. Planning regimes in these areas are more restrictive than elsewhere.
Countryside planning policy: the basics
Although individual councils’ rules vary a little in their detail, all should follow government guidance, which is set out in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). This states that isolated new homes in the countryside should be avoided, except in five specific circumstances. Briefly, these are:
Reuse (conversion) of an existing building.
Sub-division of an existing house to create several dwellings.
Where a house is needed to serve a rural business.
Where residential use would help to preserve a heritage asset.
If the design is considered to be of exceptional quality. In addition, the replacement of one house with another is acceptable, but this is not mentioned in the
NPPF, because it doesn’t create an additional new property. Also, in some areas, minor infilling can be allowed in small settlements that are otherwise defined as being in the countryside. So, let’s take a closer look at each of these provisions.
Conversion to residential
Policies towards conversion vary a great deal across the regions.
Some councils favour reuse of rural buildings for business or holiday let uses. Others are quite picky about the types of buildings they’ll allow to be converted, favouring traditional structures over more modern ones.
In all cases, the property should be capable of conversion without significant rebuilding or extension.
It’s often necessary to produce a structural survey to prove this. In addition, rural buildings might be home to bats or owls, and you’ll need to factor the cost of an ecological survey into your project if their presence is suspected. Alongside barns and other typical rural buildings, bear in mind that you might be able to convert a structure currently in business use to residential.
Sub-dividing an existing property
This isn’t a typical approach for self builders – it’s generally more of a developer-led route – but it might suit those looking split a property into two homes alongside family or friends. The sub-division refers specifically to the dwelling itself, so it wouldn’t involve creating a separate house from a large outbuilding or garage.
Houses for rural businesses
If you’re involved in, or are setting up, a genuine full-time agricultural or other rural business, then you can often get permission for a house if you can show that it’s absolutely necessary to the business to have someone living on-site full time.
With new businesses, councils prefer to first grant temporary consent for a mobile home for a period of three years, to ensure the venture becomes viable. Only then will they award permission for a permanent house. Size restrictions are also imposed, while over-elaborate or expensive designs are discouraged.
This type of project requires a detailed case to prove the need to be on site 24/7, and show the business is viable and likely to remain so.
Preserving a heritage asset
There are two possibilities here.
First, if conversion to residential use is the best way to preserve a building with heritage value, then it might be allowed in circumstances where it would otherwise be restricted.
Occasionally, a new house might be permissible to generate funds to preserve a heritage asset. This is known as enabling development.
The circumstances where it might be allowed are relatively rare and you would need specialist input from a heritage/conservation specialist to judge the merits of any such proposal.
Exceptional design in the countryside
Under paragraph 79 (previously known as paragraph 55) of the NPPF, it’s possible to gain planning consent for a unique home in the countryside – but the bar is set very high. The guidance states that to be considered of exceptional quality, a new house design must be truly outstanding or innovative, reflecting the highest
standards in architecture. In addition, it should help to raise standards of design more generally in rural areas, significantly enhance its immediate setting and be sensitive to the defining characteristics of the local area. That’s a lot of words that are open to very varied interpretation. In practice, it’s rare for projects to win approval – but there are some architectural practices that specialise in taking on such schemes.
Replacement houses
You can generally demolish and replace an existing dwelling in the countryside, provided it’s not listed or considered a heritage asset. It isn’t a problem if the house is empty and in poor condition, as long as the council doesn’t consider the residential use of the building to have been abandoned.
For a dwelling to be classed as abandoned, it would have to have been empty for many years, in derelict condition or have been put to some other use since it was last occupied.
So, you can usually replace a house with a similar or larger property. Most councils have a specific policy that spells out how big an increase in size might be allowed. This is often crucial, as many of the properties bought for demolition and rebuild are small bungalows and cottages.
The size of replacement allowed is likely to be controlled particularly tightly in green belt areas. A number of councils specify a percentage increase in floor area or volume that will be acceptable, while others go for more vague guidance, such as the replacement being ‘not significantly larger’ than the original. Also in green belt, you might be able to replace a non-residential building with a new dwelling, as this route is specifically mentioned in the NPPF.
Infilling
Some local authorities allow infilling of small gaps between homes, typically in small hamlets and groups of houses that are in the countryside. This does not mean infilling is always acceptable, nor does it imply that large gaps between very sparse areas of housing can be built on.
Other opportunities
Occasionally you can get planning permission to replace an unsightly building (or otherwise unpleasant use) with a new dwelling, where your project would bring a wider benefit to local amenities. You’ll rarely find reference to such proposals in any policy, so these types of schemes are reliant on the relevant council, or particular planning officer, taking a common-sense approach.
Assessing plots & making applications
The key thing you need to do if you are contemplating self building in the countryside is to find out everything you can about the relevant Local Plan policies that apply in your area. If there’s no rule that’s specific to your project, then try to locate a similar scheme in the area and look up the planning file on the council’s website. The Officer’s Report should spell out the policies that were applied and the council’s general line of thinking. This should give you a good idea of how your project is likely to fare.
Be aware that policies do change over time. For instance, your council might have both an old Local Plan and a new, emerging one that’s not yet been formally adopted. In these circumstances, it’s a good idea to phone the planning policy department to find out which policies are being used for decision making.
Finally, where a council hasn’t formally identified a sufficient five-year housing land supply, or earmarked enough land to meet the demand for self build plots, it can be worth testing the waters. In these scenarios, it may be possible to obtain planning consent for sites on the periphery of settlements, in locations that are accessible to facilities and public transport, that might not normally gain permission. This is a bit of a technical area and, if you think it could apply to a plot you’re interested in, it’s well worth seeking advice from a planning consultant.