Household Permitted Development: All Change here.

Monday (30th) sees the long awaited change in domestic Permitted Development Rights (PDR's) which move away from the long used "volume" based approach to an impact approach.  So if you haven't yet begun your works then we urge you to contact us for advice as the new Rules are very different to those they replace.

Broadly it follows the model introduced in England in 2008.  Applied with care and skill it will increase the amount by which you can extend your home compared to the rules it replaces but also contain some serious catches for things which might previously have been considered innocuous.

Things to watch out for...

• Interpretation of the Principle Elevation (and other elevations) - These dictate those areas of the house where you can extend without a formal permission subjects to limits and conditions.   
• The requirement that "materials used in the walls, roof or other element of any exterior work must so far as practicable match the appearance of the materials used in the majority of the equivalent element of the existing dwellinghouse" Condition A3(a). This is a seemingly much more restrictive approach than in the English version of the Order and we can see many a DC officer seeking a battle of wills over that one.  ("other element of any exterior work..."  a potential minefield).  
• Height limits and definitions for measuring height/eaves. 
• As applied in Class E (Garden buildings etc) the height limits are much more restrictive than the current Order. We foresee a lot of buildings in urban situations being caught where of necessity they are:
• within 2 metres of the boundary and over 2.5m high.
• within 2 metres of the dwelling and any part over 1.5m high.
• on sloping sites where the eaves height limit 2.5 metres will catch many buildings with useable head room. Unless of course you excavate. 
• Increased control in protected areas (Conservation areas, AONB, World Heritage Sites). No longer are roof-lights PD for example
• Clarification on decking and raised platforms (anything 300mm above ground level now needs permission).
• Welcome inclusion of PDR for External Wall Insulation.

We cant but help thinking the Welsh Government, in trying to remove some of the ambiguity (and flexibility) of the old Order and address some of the criticisms of the 2008 English version has opened up an even greater can of worms.  Our guess is that demands for planning applications for minor proposals previously exempt from control (roof lights/windows//decking/drives/garages) will  rocket.

Flintshire County Council has already announced that it will no longer respond to pre-application enquiries for householder development informally, directing us to the Lawful Development Certificate (LDC) approach. No other north Wales Authority has announced the same yet, but we suspect it will become more prevalent practice. 

We always strongly advise you secure a LDC before you start works.  We are ready to take your instructions to get your development off the ground.