Single-storey, double-storey, rear and side extension drawings for St Leonard's homes — measured to Exeter City Council's design guidance, delivered in days and revised free until your decision, with a free approval-odds check before you commit.
Exeter City Council granted 87% of the householder planning decisions it made in its latest published year — level with the 87% England-wide householder average. The historic core and Cathedral setting are tightly protected, and heritage impact is weighed on schemes visible from Southernhay and the walled city, which is where a policy-literate drawing pack earns its keep. Its dominant Georgian (1714–1837) and Victorian (1837–1901) housing stock sets the design brief on most streets.
Under Class B, a rear dormer stays permitted development up to 40m³ of added roof volume on a terrace or 50m³ on a semi-detached or detached house, while Class A allows a single-storey rear extension of 3m beyond the original rear wall on a terrace and 4m on a detached house before a full application is needed. In conservation areas such as St Leonard's, Mount Radford and Southernhay & The Friars those rights are removed, so we confirm your exact address before a line is drawn. A validated householder application in St Leonard's is determined against an 8-week statutory target.
Southernhay (elegant Georgian brick terraces facing the tree-lined lawns), Mount Radford (Regency and early-Victorian villas around St Leonard's Road), Baring Crescent (a listed early-Victorian crescent off Magdalen Road), Wonford Road (large detached Victorian villas on generous plots) and Barnfield (Georgian and Victorian terraces near Southernhay and the theatre) — these are the St Leonard's pockets our drawings cover most. Heritage designations here include St Leonard's, Mount Radford and Southernhay & The Friars. Exeter City Council weighs each proposal against the Exeter Local Plan / Core Strategy and the emerging Exeter Plan, where conservation-area frontages here are held to detailed standards on materials, render, windows and boundary walls. Many of the larger St Leonard's villas are subdivided into flats and maisonettes, which carry no householder permitted-development rights.. On roofs the borough is parapet-concealed slate roofs on the Georgian terraces and hipped and gabled Welsh-slate roofs on the Victorian villas, over Georgian and Regency terraces around Southernhay and Barnfield, substantial Victorian villas in local red breccia and brick and period houses subdivided into flats.
St Leonard's homes come in a handful of recurring shapes, and each one points to a different extension. The borough is built largely from Georgian and Regency terraces around Southernhay and Barnfield, substantial Victorian villas in local red breccia and brick and period houses subdivided into flats, 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. Exeter City Council judges every one of them against the Exeter Local Plan / Core Strategy and the emerging Exeter Plan, 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 historic core and Cathedral setting are tightly protected, and heritage impact is weighed on schemes visible from Southernhay and the walled city, so we design around it from the first sketch rather than discover it at validation.
St Leonard's also protects whole streets — St Leonard's, Mount Radford and Southernhay & The Friars among them. St Leonard's sits outside the city's HMO Article 4 Direction, which is drawn around the student belt north of the centre, but the St Leonard's, Mount Radford and Southernhay & The Friars conservation areas remove or restrict permitted-development rights across most of its Georgian and Victorian streets. 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 St Leonard's 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 Exeter City Council if any of these apply:
We draw the footprint, the ridge and eaves heights and the neighbours' daylight on the page — the relationships Exeter City 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 Exeter City Council's real householder decision record, drawn from official planning statistics and refreshed as new data lands. Exeter grants around 87% of the applications it decides, with conservation-area design control across St Leonard's and Southernhay the recurring constraint on roof, rear and frontage changes. 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 Southernhay, Mount Radford and Baring Crescent, 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 georgian and regency terraces around southernhay and barnfield, a side-return infill frequently pairs with it to square off the plan; on wider period houses subdivided into flats, a two-storey side or rear extension can add a bedroom above without swallowing the garden.
Conservation-area frontages here are held to detailed standards on materials, render, windows and boundary walls. 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 Exeter City 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 St Leonard's projects come up most often:
Extension drawings for Southernhay's elegant Georgian brick terraces facing the tree-lined lawns — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Exeter City Council's guidance.
Extension drawings for Mount Radford's Regency and early-Victorian villas around St Leonard's Road — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Exeter City Council's guidance.
Extension drawings for Baring Crescent's a listed early-Victorian crescent off Magdalen Road — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Exeter City Council's guidance.
Extension drawings for Wonford Road's large detached Victorian villas on generous plots — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Exeter City Council's guidance.
Extension drawings for Barnfield's Georgian and Victorian terraces near Southernhay and the theatre — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Exeter City Council's guidance.
The right extension in St Leonard's 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 Exeter City 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 St Leonard's and Mount Radford and Article 4 directions can remove permitted-development rights.
A fixed process built around how Exeter City Council validates and decides householder extension applications — most drawings are submission-ready within seven days of survey.
Tell us your St Leonard's 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 Exeter City 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 Exeter City 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 Exeter City 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 St Leonard's you will need to apply to Exeter City 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 St Leonard's and Mount Radford.
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 Exeter City Council and a neighbour-consultation period, and it does not apply on designated land such as St Leonard's'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 Exeter City 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 St Leonard's address specifically.
A householder planning application in St Leonard's 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. Exeter City 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 Exeter City Council's building control or an approved inspector can sign the work off. This applies to your St Leonard's address specifically.
Every house and brief is different, so we price each St Leonard's extension individually and send a fixed, no-obligation quote back within one working day. It covers the full drawing pack with free revisions until Exeter City 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.