Single-storey, double-storey, rear and side extension drawings for Rainham South East homes — measured to Medway Council's design guidance, delivered in days and revised free until your decision, with a free approval-odds check before you commit.
Medway Council granted 96% of the householder planning decisions it made in its latest published year — 9 points above the 87% England-wide householder average. Rainham South East contains Meresborough, Moor Street conservation areas (Meresborough designated 1989), so materials, fenestration and roof form are assessed against the appraisal, which is where a policy-literate drawing pack earns its keep. Its dominant postwar (1945–1970) housing stock sets the design brief on most streets.
Class A and Class B set the thresholds — a rear dormer to 40m³ on a terrace or 50m³ on a semi or detached, and a single-storey rear extension to 3m on a terrace or 4m on a detached house — beyond which Medway Council needs a full application. Rainham South East carries at least one Article 4 direction, and conservation areas including Meresborough and Moor Street remove those rights outright, so we confirm your exact address before a line is drawn. A validated householder application in Rainham South East is determined against an 8-week statutory target.
Meresborough (conservation area designated in 1989) and Moor Street (conservation area designated in 1989) — these are the Rainham South East pockets our drawings cover most. Heritage designations here include Meresborough and Moor Street. Medway Council weighs each proposal against Medway Council's development plan and the design policies it applies to householder applications, where the 5,680 homes here are 44% 1965-1972, 32% 1973-1982, 9% 1983-1992, which is what sets the realistic roof and rear-projection options. On roofs the borough is shallow-pitched roofs and integral garages typical of that period's building and shallow trussed roofs typical of 1970s building, over late-1960s and early-1970s houses (44% of 5,680 homes), 1970s and early-1980s houses (32%) and 1980s estate houses (9%).
Heritage designation is the single biggest variable in Rainham South East, and it is address-specific: Meresborough (conservation area designated in 1989) and Moor Street (conservation area designated in 1989). Inside those boundaries permitted development is curtailed and Medway Council assesses materials, window detail and roof form against the area's own appraisal, so a scheme that would be waved through two streets away can need a full application here.
Medway Council has 47 recorded Article 4 directions — check the address before assuming PD applies in Rainham South East.
On stock, Rainham South East is late-1960s and early-1970s houses (44% of 5,680 homes), 1970s and early-1980s houses (32%) and 1980s estate houses (9%) — which is why shallow-pitched roofs and integral garages typical of that period's building and shallow trussed roofs typical of 1970s building govern what a loft or rear projection can realistically be. Medway Council decided 540 householder applications in the latest published year and granted 96%, with 94% issued inside the eight-week target. We work from the council's own published record.
The full build-period split for Rainham South East runs pre-1900 1% (30 homes), 1900-1918 0% (10 homes), 1919-1929 0% (20 homes), 1930-1939 1% (40 homes), 1945-1954 0% (20 homes), 1955-1964 6% (360 homes), 1965-1972 44% (2,520 homes), 1973-1982 32% (1,840 homes), 1983-1992 9% (490 homes), 1993-1999 1% (70 homes) and 2000-2008 0% (10 homes). That distribution is why pre-1900 detailing dominates the drawings here, and it is measured from council-tax records rather than assumed from the street name.
Medway Council also decides for All Saints, Fort Pitt, Rainham North and Strood Rural, so a decision in Rainham South East sits inside a wider pattern of decisions we track across the same authority — useful when an officer cites a precedent from the next area over.
The Article 4 directions recorded for this council include Brompton Lines(1), Brompton Lines(2), Chatham Central & Brompton and Fort Pitt. Each removes a specific permitted-development right inside its own boundary, which is why the check is done on the address rather than on the town.
Published figures for Rainham South East and Medway Council. These are the numbers that decide what is realistic on your street, so we work from them rather than from national averages.
| Measure | Rainham South East |
|---|---|
| Dwellings recorded | 5,680 |
| Built pre-1900 | 30 (1%) |
| Built 1900-1918 | 10 (0%) |
| Built 1919-1929 | 20 (0%) |
| Built 1930-1939 | 40 (1%) |
| Built 1945-1954 | 20 (0%) |
| Built 1955-1964 | 360 (6%) |
| Built 1965-1972 | 2,520 (44%) |
| Built 1973-1982 | 1,840 (32%) |
| Built 1983-1992 | 490 (9%) |
| Built 1993-1999 | 70 (1%) |
| Built 2000-2008 | 10 (0%) |
| Built before 1919 | 1% |
| Built 1919–1939 | 1% |
| Built 1945–2008 | 93% |
| Conservation areas in Rainham South East | 2 (Meresborough, Moor Street) |
| Conservation areas district-wide | 24 |
| Article 4 directions recorded | 47 |
| Householder applications decided | 540 |
| Householder applications granted | 96% |
| Decided within 8 weeks | 94% |
Dwelling stock from VOA council-tax data at 31 March 2025; conservation-area and Article 4 counts from planning.data.gov.uk (MHCLG); decision figures are Medway Council's own, from MHCLG live table PS2 for the year to 31 March 2026.
Rainham South East homes come in a handful of recurring shapes, and each one points to a different extension. The borough is built largely from late-1960s and early-1970s houses (44% of 5,680 homes), 1970s and early-1980s houses (32%) and 1980s estate houses (9%), so a Victorian terrace usually wants a rear or side-return infill, while an interwar semi has room for a wider single-storey wrap or a two-storey side addition. Medway Council judges every one of them against Medway Council's development plan and the design policies it applies to householder applications, weighing footprint, height and the impact on the house next door before it looks at the elevations.
That is why the drawings decide the outcome. We set the extension depth against the permitted-development limits precisely, keep the eaves and ridge within the allowances, and plot the 45-degree daylight lines to the neighbours' windows so the case officer can see the amenity test is passed. Rainham South East contains Meresborough, Moor Street conservation areas (Meresborough designated 1989), so materials, fenestration and roof form are assessed against the appraisal, so we design around it from the first sketch rather than discover it at validation.
Rainham South East also protects whole streets — Meresborough and Moor Street among them. Medway Council has 47 recorded Article 4 directions — check the address before assuming PD applies in Rainham South East. On designated land the larger-home extension route and most side extensions stop being permitted development, so we confirm your address against those layers before drawing a line.
Plenty of Rainham South East extensions are permitted development and need no planning application — a single-storey rear extension within the depth and height limits is the common case. You will normally need to apply to Medway Council if any of these apply:
We draw the footprint, the ridge and eaves heights and the neighbours' daylight on the page — the relationships Medway Council's officers weigh first — and submit a validation-complete pack, whether that is a lawful development certificate, a prior-approval notification or a full householder application.
Below is Medway Council's real householder decision record, drawn from official planning statistics and refreshed as new data lands. Medway Council granted 96% of its householder applications in the year to 31 March 2026, and Meresborough shapes what is approved here. A complete, policy-literate extension pack anticipates those pressure points before submission, which is why professionally drawn applications are decided faster and refused less often than DIY ones.
Source: MHCLG planning application statistics (householder decisions, England, 1 April 2025 - 31 March 2026). Compare every borough on our London approval-rate league table.
Tell us about your project and get a fixed, no-obligation quote back within one working day. If you don't need planning permission at all, we'll tell you that too — for free.
Across Meresborough and Moor Street, the extension that lands most often is the single-storey rear addition — a glazed kitchen-diner across the back of the house, kept within the permitted-development depth or taken to a full application where the ground floor wants more. On the borough's late-1960s and early-1970s houses (44% of 5,680 homes), a side-return infill frequently pairs with it to square off the plan; on wider 1980s estate houses (9%), a two-storey side or rear extension can add a bedroom above without swallowing the garden.
The 5,680 homes here are 44% 1965-1972, 32% 1973-1982, 9% 1983-1992, which is what sets the realistic roof and rear-projection options. We size the extension to the amenity and daylight tests, match the roof and materials to the host house, and keep enough garden to satisfy Medway Council's space standards — so the scheme answers the borough's questions before an objection can raise them. Where permitted-development rights are used up or removed, we prepare the householder application to the council's extension design guidance instead.
We draw extensions on every street in the borough. A few of the neighbourhoods where Rainham South East projects come up most often:
Extension drawings for Meresborough's conservation area designated in 1989 — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Medway Council's guidance.
Extension drawings for Moor Street's conservation area designated in 1989 — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Medway Council's guidance.
The right extension in Rainham South East depends on your house type and how much garden you can give up. This is how the main options compare on planning route and what they add.
| Extension type | Permitted development? | What it adds | What Medway Council checks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single-storey rear | Often, within 3m/4m depth (6m/8m via prior approval) | Bigger kitchen-diner across the back | Depth, height, neighbour daylight (45°) |
| Side-return infill | Sometimes, if within width and height limits | Squares off an L-shaped ground floor | Width vs the original house, glazing to boundary |
| Two-storey rear/side | No — full application | Extra bedroom or bathroom above | Bulk, overlooking, 7m rear-boundary gap |
| Wraparound (rear + side) | No — full application | Whole-width open-plan ground floor | Combined footprint and garden retained |
Route depends on your street — conservation areas such as Meresborough and Moor Street and Article 4 directions can remove permitted-development rights.
A fixed process built around how Medway Council validates and decides householder extension applications — most drawings are submission-ready within seven days of survey.
Tell us your Rainham South East postcode and house type. We confirm your conservation and Article 4 status, how much permitted-development depth you have left, and score your odds against live Medway Council decisions.
We measure the existing footprint, floor and eaves levels, boundary distances and the neighbours' window positions — the numbers the depth limits and daylight tests depend on.
Chartered designers develop the single-storey, two-storey or side extension to your brief, drawn inside the permitted-development limits or to Medway Council's extension design guidance.
We submit the certificate, prior-approval notice or application, manage validation and case-officer queries, and revise the drawings free until Medway Council issues its decision.
Not always. A single-storey rear extension up to 3 metres deep on a terrace or semi, or 4 metres on a detached house, and no higher than 4 metres, is usually permitted development. In Rainham South East you will need to apply to Medway Council for two-storey extensions, side extensions wider than half the house, anything forward of the front wall, deeper rear extensions under the larger-home prior-approval route, and any extension in a conservation area such as Meresborough and Moor Street.
Standard permitted development allows 3 metres on a terraced or semi-detached house and 4 metres on a detached one. The larger-home extension scheme can double that to 6 or 8 metres, but it needs a prior-approval notification to Medway Council and a neighbour-consultation period, and it does not apply on designated land such as Rainham South East's conservation areas. We confirm which route your property qualifies for before drawing.
Two-storey and double-storey extensions almost always need a full householder application to Medway Council, because they fall outside permitted development on most homes. The council looks closely at bulk, overlooking of neighbours and the 7-metre gap a two-storey rear extension must keep from the rear boundary. We design to those tests and show the daylight and privacy angles on the drawings. This applies to your Rainham South East address specifically.
A householder planning application in Rainham South East runs to a statutory eight-week target, a larger-home prior-approval notification to around six weeks including the neighbour-consultation period, and a lawful development certificate to eight weeks. Incomplete submissions stall at validation, so we submit a complete pack and manage officer queries to keep the decision on schedule. Medway Council is the decision-maker.
Yes — planning permission and building regulations are separate consents, and almost every extension needs both. Planning governs whether you can build it; building control governs how it is built, covering structure, insulation, drainage and fire safety. We prepare the building-regulations drawings alongside the planning set so Medway Council's building control or an approved inspector can sign the work off. This applies to your Rainham South East address specifically.
Every house and brief is different, so we price each Rainham South East extension individually and send a fixed, no-obligation quote back within one working day. It covers the full drawing pack with free revisions until Medway Council approves, and we tell you upfront whether your extension qualifies as permitted development. Call 020 7864 7245 to get started.
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