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Planning rules for home extensions relaxed
6th January 2009
Improving homes in England and Wales became a whole lot easier for tens of thousands of families from last October when new planning rules came into effect, meaning that the majority of homeowners no longer need to get planning permission to extend their home.The changes allow people to extend their home up and out for the first time without needing to pay the costs (up to £1000), or wait weeks, to get planning permission to start building.
Each year, about 80,000 households should now find it easier to improve their homes by converting lofts and building extensions, for example, because they no longer have to go through the bureaucratic hurdles of the planning system.
Carefully calculated size limits on the permitted extensions mean the new rules strike the right balance between helping homeowners to better their home and protecting neighbours against larger inappropriate or intrusive extensions.
Finding out what the planning requirements are has never been easier thanks to a new interactive house guide that helps people who want to improve their home ensure that no one falls foul of the new rules.
The website http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/uploads/ hhg/houseguide.html guides users round the planning permission rules for homes from everything at the front and back of house through to each floor inside.
All people have to do is click on the part the house they want to change, whether it's a loft conversion, the driveway, solar panels, wind turbines, fencing, or even the bathroom, and a pop up explains all the new rules.
The rules have already been changed to enable homeowners to install solar panels without planning permission - see the article in the summer 2008 issue of Switched On for further details.
