Current UK Planning Rules For Your Garden Building

Garden buildings generally fall under the term ‘Permitted Development’ providing they conform to the correct positioning, size and height rules as laid down by the UK-wide guide on The Planning Portal for outbuildings.

The Planning Portal provides really good guidance for most properties and permitted ‘outbuildings’ which our ranges cover and so we recommend you spending time to familiarise yourself with the various areas that may need to be considered.

As with most things, there are exceptions that do need to be considered. Is your home listed, in an area of outstanding natural beauty (AOB), have a restriction on outbuilding development laid down by the developer (often set as a time period on new estates until the developer has sold all the plots) or by the council?

Post-COVID, working from home is the new normal. Having a home office (such as the Luminato), a workshop such as the Eleganto range doesn’t break permitted development if the above exceptions haven’t been crossed. However, in addition to the above, if you have deliveries or clients that come to your address that could cause disruption, parking issues or noise then it is recommended that a friendly call to the council planning department to just ‘double-check’ would be prudent.

It is worth mentioning that the previous guidelines of replacing old-for-new no longer applies. What this means is that an objection ‘could’ be lodged against a new building that have replaced an old one (if new rules have been put in place since the old building) if it breaks the rules.

Whilst most properties don’t have these restrictions (looking out over neighbour’s gardens will give you a pretty good guide as to what is allowed), if you have any doubts then filling in an online form (a small fee is usually charged) to your local planning office should be sufficient to discover if there are any restrictions.

Ultimately it is the homeowner’s responsibility to ensure that no permitted rules have been broken so common sense is recommended.