Important changes to the planning system will come into effect from 1 October 2008, which will give more freedom to people wanting to carry out improvements to their homes. From this date there will be a big overhaul of the planning permission system, where the rules that cover householder developments will be relaxed.
In simple terms, it means that in certain circumstances, you can carry out minor extensions and alterations to your property without the need to apply to us for formal permission.
Why is the system changing?
The changes come in the light of the Government’s 2007 Planning White Paper, which aimed to introduce a more user-friendly system, and to free up time for planning departments by reducing the number of householder applications coming through the system.
Given the current housing market, the aim is to give as much freedom as possible for people to extend their homes, such as building extensions and loft conversions.
The new rules shift the emphasis from a volume based approach to an impact based system taking in to account distances, depths and heights of a development.
However, restrictions would remain tight in some circumstances, including parts of the district that fall within conservation areas and areas of outstanding natural beauty.
For information on minor domestic work which can normally be carried out without planning permission please see the section do I need planning permission?
Another of the changes to the permitted development rights includes conditions that require hard surfacing of more than 5 square meters between a dwellinghouse and highway to either be porous or provision be made to direct run-off water from the hard surface to a permeable or porous area within the curtilage of the dwellinghouse. Follow this link for details of acceptable methods of constructing a hard standing.
We appreciate that any changes to a system can be confusing, so in preparation, our planning officers are currently studying the changes in order to provide guidance and support to our customers.
Changes to pre application advice
