Single-storey, double-storey, rear and side extension drawings for Redlands homes — measured to Reading Borough Council's design guidance, delivered in days and revised free until your decision, with a free approval-odds check before you commit.
Reading Borough Council granted 87% of the householder planning decisions it made in its latest published year — level with the 87% England-wide householder average. The HMO Article 4 direction means planning permission is normally refused where a new HMO would push the share of HMOs within a 50-metre radius above 25 per cent, which is where a policy-literate drawing pack earns its keep. Its dominant Victorian (1837–1901) and Edwardian (1901–1910) housing stock sets the design brief on most streets.
Before permission is required, Class B allows 40m³ of added loft volume on a terrace and 50m³ on a semi or detached house, and Class A allows a 3m single-storey rear extension on a terrace or 4m on a detached house. Redlands carries at least one Article 4 direction, and conservation areas including Redlands, Kendrick and Christchurch remove those rights outright, so we confirm your exact address before a line is drawn. A validated householder application in Redlands is determined against an 8-week statutory target.
Redlands (grand Victorian villas heavily converted to flats and HMOs), University (Whiteknights) (student rentals around the Whiteknights campus), Erleigh Road (long red-brick Victorian terraces east of the centre), Kendrick (substantial Victorian houses in the Kendrick conservation area), Christchurch (Victorian and Edwardian streets in the Christchurch conservation area) and London Road (villas around the university's historic London Road campus) — these are the Redlands pockets our drawings cover most. Heritage designations here include Redlands, Kendrick, Christchurch and Alexandra Road. Reading Borough Council weighs each proposal against the Reading Borough Local Plan (2019), where converting family houses to further flats or student rooms is resisted and is frequently the deciding issue. Much of Redlands is already converted flats, HMOs and student housing, which hold no householder permitted-development rights of their own.. On roofs the borough is pitched and gabled roofs on the villas and terraces and valley roofs behind the larger Victorian houses, over large Victorian and Edwardian villas subdivided into flats and HMOs, red-brick Victorian terraces off the London and Erleigh roads and student and rented housing around the university.
Redlands homes come in a handful of recurring shapes, and each one points to a different extension. The borough is built largely from large Victorian and Edwardian villas subdivided into flats and HMOs, red-brick Victorian terraces off the London and Erleigh roads and student and rented housing around the university, 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. Reading Borough Council judges every one of them against the Reading Borough Local Plan (2019), 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. The HMO Article 4 direction means planning permission is normally refused where a new HMO would push the share of HMOs within a 50-metre radius above 25 per cent, so we design around it from the first sketch rather than discover it at validation.
Redlands also protects whole streets — Redlands, Kendrick, Christchurch and Alexandra Road among them. Redlands ward sits inside Reading's HMO Article 4 direction, in force since 2013, which removes the automatic right to change a house (C3) to a small house in multiple occupation (C4) in this student-heavy area next to the University of Reading. 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 Redlands 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 Reading Borough Council if any of these apply:
We draw the footprint, the ridge and eaves heights and the neighbours' daylight on the page — the relationships Reading Borough 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 Reading Borough Council's real householder decision record, drawn from official planning statistics and refreshed as new data lands. Redlands grants a solid share of householder applications, but as the borough's densest student-HMO belt it is where the Article 4 direction and the protection of remaining family houses shape most refusals. 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 Redlands, University (Whiteknights) and Erleigh Road, 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 large victorian and edwardian villas subdivided into flats and hmos, a side-return infill frequently pairs with it to square off the plan; on wider student and rented housing around the university, a two-storey side or rear extension can add a bedroom above without swallowing the garden.
Converting family houses to further flats or student rooms is resisted and is frequently the deciding issue. 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 Reading Borough 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 Redlands projects come up most often:
Extension drawings for Redlands's grand Victorian villas heavily converted to flats and HMOs — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Reading Borough Council's guidance.
Extension drawings for University (Whiteknights)'s student rentals around the Whiteknights campus — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Reading Borough Council's guidance.
Extension drawings for Erleigh Road's long red-brick Victorian terraces east of the centre — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Reading Borough Council's guidance.
Extension drawings for Kendrick's substantial Victorian houses in the Kendrick conservation area — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Reading Borough Council's guidance.
Extension drawings for Christchurch's Victorian and Edwardian streets in the Christchurch conservation area — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Reading Borough Council's guidance.
Extension drawings for London Road's villas around the university's historic London Road campus — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Reading Borough Council's guidance.
The right extension in Redlands 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 Reading Borough 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 Redlands and Kendrick and Article 4 directions can remove permitted-development rights.
A fixed process built around how Reading Borough Council validates and decides householder extension applications — most drawings are submission-ready within seven days of survey.
Tell us your Redlands 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 Reading Borough 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 Reading Borough 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 Reading Borough 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 Redlands you will need to apply to Reading Borough 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 Redlands and Kendrick.
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 Reading Borough Council and a neighbour-consultation period, and it does not apply on designated land such as Redlands'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 Reading Borough 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 Redlands address specifically.
A householder planning application in Redlands 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. Reading Borough 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 Reading Borough Council's building control or an approved inspector can sign the work off. This applies to your Redlands address specifically.
Every house and brief is different, so we price each Redlands extension individually and send a fixed, no-obligation quote back within one working day. It covers the full drawing pack with free revisions until Reading Borough Council approves, and we tell you upfront whether your extension qualifies as permitted development. Call 020 7864 7245 to get started.
Answer five quick questions and get a free planning score for your exact address — instantly. Then, if you want the full picture, unlock the detailed analysis: your council's live approval rates, local precedents, constraints on your street and a step-by-step route to permission.
Same fixed quotes, same fast drawings — wherever your project is.