Drawings that turn a Wigan house into self-contained flats — units sized to space standards, separated for sound and fire, and drawn to Wigan Council's conversion policy so the change of use is approved, delivered in days and revised free until your decision, with a free feasibility check first.
Wigan Council granted 89% of the householder planning decisions it made in its latest published year — 2 points above the 87% England-wide householder average. A large share of the borough is Green Belt, so extension and outbuilding scale is tightly held on affected plots away from the urban cores, which is where a policy-literate drawing pack earns its keep. Its dominant Victorian (1837–1901), Edwardian (1901–1910), interwar (1918–1939) and 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 Wigan Council needs a full application. Wigan carries at least one Article 4 direction, and conservation areas including Wigan Town Centre, Wigan Pier and Standish remove those rights outright, so we confirm your exact address before a line is drawn. A validated householder application in Wigan is determined against an 8-week statutory target.
Standish (affluent commuter village with a conservation-area core mixing stone and brick with modern estates), Leigh (former cotton and mining town with canal heritage, dense terraces and a town-centre conservation area), Ashton-in-Makerfield (southern coalfield town of brick terraces and interwar suburban growth), Hindley (mining township of terraced streets with a town-centre conservation area), Tyldesley (former mill and mining town of brick terraces with a town-centre conservation area) and Haigh (semi-rural estate village adjoining Haigh Woodland Park with protected historic character) — these are the Wigan pockets our drawings cover most. Heritage designations here include Wigan Town Centre, Wigan Pier, Standish, Haigh Village, Leigh Town Centre and Tyldesley Town Centre. Wigan Council weighs each proposal against Places for Everyone (the Greater Manchester joint plan, effective March 2024) alongside the Wigan Local Plan Core Strategy and the emerging district Local Plan, where the former coalfield legacy of the Wigan Flashes and low-lying mossland brings ground-stability, contamination and ecology constraints to development sites. Converted terraced flats occur across the town centres of Wigan and Leigh, and those units carry no householder permitted-development rights.. On roofs the borough is Welsh slate on the Victorian and Edwardian brick terraces and interlocking concrete tile on the interwar and post-war semis, over Victorian and Edwardian coalfield and millworkers' red-brick terraces, interwar semis and council-estate housing and older stone cores in the estate villages.
Splitting one dwelling into several is the most policy-heavy job a house takes on, and Wigan has the stock that invites it — the borough's Victorian and Edwardian coalfield and millworkers' red-brick terraces, interwar semis and council-estate housing and older stone cores in the estate villages include the large period houses and mansion-block flats that convert well, and streets already part-converted set the pattern. But because you are creating new homes, Wigan Council assesses the scheme against its housing and conversion policies, not just its extension guidance, so the internal layout carries planning weight it never would in a single house.
The layout has to satisfy several standards together. Each flat must meet the nationally described space standard for its number of bedrooms and bed spaces, with adequate light and outlook; the mix the council will accept is often set by policy, with some boroughs resisting too many small units or requiring a family-sized flat; and every unit needs its own amenity, plus cycle and refuse storage that works for the whole building. A large share of the borough is Green Belt, so extension and outbuilding scale is tightly held on affected plots away from the urban cores, which shapes what mix and layout will pass here.
Where the house sits in a conservation area — Wigan Town Centre, Wigan Pier, Standish, Haigh Village, Leigh Town Centre and Tyldesley Town Centre among Wigan's — external changes are read hard: new entrances, bin and bike stores, meter boxes and any subdivision visible from the street all have to respect the area's character. Wigan's borough-wide Article 4 direction, in force from August 2025, removes permitted-development rights for the change of use from a house (C3) to a small HMO (C4), so all new HMOs now need planning permission, and localised conservation-area directions add further householder controls. We resolve the frontage and access before the internal layout is fixed.
Yes — a house-to-flats conversion is a change of use and always needs a full application to Wigan Council. The scheme has to satisfy each of these, and the drawings are where each is proven:
We lay out flats that meet the space standard, plan the sound and fire separation, and solve the entrances, bins and bike stores — then draw the change-of-use application to Wigan Council's conversion policy so the scheme is judged on a complete proposal, not bounced for a unit that is too small or a layout that cannot be separated.
Below is Wigan Council's real householder and residential decision record, drawn from official planning statistics and refreshed as new data lands. Wigan approves close to nine in ten planning applications, with its extensive Green Belt, former-coalfield ground conditions and canal-side conservation areas the main constraints on householder schemes. Conversions are judged harder than extensions because they create new homes, so a scheme that proves space, mix and separation upfront is decided far more smoothly than one that leaves the officer to find the gaps.
Source: MHCLG planning application statistics (householder decisions, England, 1 April 2025 - 31 March 2026). Compare every borough on our London approval-rate league table.
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The conversions that pass in Wigan are the ones that treat the new homes as homes, not as the maximum number of doors that fit. Across Standish, Leigh and Ashton-in-Makerfield, the approved schemes give each flat a proper layout at or above the space standard, a sensible mix rather than a stack of studios, and amenity, bin and cycle provision that does not wreck the frontage. Overcrowding the building is the quickest route to refusal, and it rarely adds the value it promises.
The former coalfield legacy of the Wigan Flashes and low-lying mossland brings ground-stability, contamination and ecology constraints to development sites. We design the mix to what Wigan Council will accept, prove each unit meets the standard on the plan, and coordinate the planning layout with the sound and fire separation from the outset — so the scheme that gets permission is the same one building control can sign off, not a layout that has to be torn up at the next stage.
We convert houses and reconfigure flats on the period streets and mansion blocks across the borough. A few of the Wigan neighbourhoods where conversions come up most often:
Flat conversion drawings for Standish's affluent commuter village with a conservation-area core mixing stone and brick with modern estates — space-standard checked, separation-planned and drawn to Wigan Council's conversion policy.
Flat conversion drawings for Leigh's former cotton and mining town with canal heritage, dense terraces and a town-centre conservation area — space-standard checked, separation-planned and drawn to Wigan Council's conversion policy.
Flat conversion drawings for Ashton-in-Makerfield's southern coalfield town of brick terraces and interwar suburban growth — space-standard checked, separation-planned and drawn to Wigan Council's conversion policy.
Flat conversion drawings for Hindley's mining township of terraced streets with a town-centre conservation area — space-standard checked, separation-planned and drawn to Wigan Council's conversion policy.
Flat conversion drawings for Tyldesley's former mill and mining town of brick terraces with a town-centre conservation area — space-standard checked, separation-planned and drawn to Wigan Council's conversion policy.
Flat conversion drawings for Haigh's semi-rural estate village adjoining Haigh Woodland Park with protected historic character — space-standard checked, separation-planned and drawn to Wigan Council's conversion policy.
A conversion is judged on planning and building standards together. This is what each requires and who checks it.
| Requirement | What it means | Set by | Checked at |
|---|---|---|---|
| Change of use | Creating separate self-contained units | Planning policy | Wigan Council planning |
| Space standards | Minimum floor area per bedroom and bed space | National space standard | Wigan Council planning |
| Unit mix & amenity | Sensible flat sizes, light, outdoor space | Local housing policy | Wigan Council planning |
| Sound & fire separation | Part E acoustic and protected escape | Building regulations | Building control |
In conservation areas such as Wigan Town Centre and Wigan Pier, external changes to a Wigan conversion — entrances, bin and bike stores — are assessed against the area's character.
A fixed process built around how Wigan Council judges conversions — most drawing sets are submission-ready within seven days of survey.
Send us your Wigan postcode and the building. We test how many units realistically fit at the space standard, confirm the mix Wigan Council is likely to accept, and flag conservation, Article 4 and access constraints before you commit.
We measure the building accurately, because a conversion lives or dies on floor areas — every flat has to be proven against the space standard on a plan that matches the real property.
We design the flats to the space standard, coordinate the sound and fire separation and the entrances, bins and cycle stores, and draw the full change-of-use application to Wigan Council's conversion policy.
We lodge the application, manage validation and case-officer queries, and revise the drawings free until Wigan Council issues its decision.
Always. Splitting one house into two or more self-contained flats is a change of use, which is never permitted development, so a full application to Wigan Council is required. The council assesses the unit sizes, the mix and the amenity against its housing policy, as well as any external changes. A Wigan conversion is judged more closely than an extension precisely because it creates new homes.
Each flat must meet the nationally described space standard, which sets a minimum floor area by the number of bedrooms and bed spaces — a one-bed one-person flat starts at 37–39 square metres, and larger units scale up from there. Wigan Council will refuse units below the standard. We test how many compliant flats a Wigan building genuinely holds at feasibility, rather than drawing undersized units that cannot be approved.
Once you create separate units, building control requires Part E acoustic separation between them — the floors and party walls must be built or upgraded to resist airborne and impact sound — and a protected means of escape so each flat can be left safely in a fire. These are checked by Wigan Council's building control, separately from planning. We plan the separation into the layout from the start, so the planning design and the building-regs build are the same scheme.
Not necessarily. Many boroughs set policy on the mix — resisting schemes that are all studios or one-beds, and sometimes requiring a family-sized flat — to keep a range of homes. Wigan Council applies its own housing policy to a conversion, so the profitable-looking stack of small units is often the one that gets refused. We design the mix to what the borough will actually accept before drawing the application.
Usually yes. Once the Wigan building is flats, each unit is normally sold or let on a lease, and a Land Registry-compliant lease plan is needed to define its extent. The measured survey behind the conversion drawings is the ideal base for those lease plans, so the same accurate record serves the planning application, the building-regs layout and the leases without measuring the building twice. Wigan Council is the decision-maker.
We price each Wigan conversion on the number of units and the building's size and complexity, and send a fixed, no-obligation quote within one working day. It covers the feasibility, the change-of-use application drawings and free revisions until Wigan Council decides. Building-regs separation drawings and any council fee are quoted separately. Call 020 7864 7245 to start.
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