Drawings for a whole new home — an infill plot, a backland site or a house replaced with something better on your Barnet land, taken from feasibility through a full planning application with its design and access statement to the building-regs set, coordinated as one package and revised free until approved, with a free plot check first.
Barnet Council granted 86% of the householder planning decisions it made in its latest published year — 1 point below the 87% England-wide householder average. Hampstead Garden Suburb schemes are assessed against the Suburb's own design code as well as council policy, which is where a policy-literate drawing pack earns its keep. Its dominant 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 Barnet Council needs a full application. Barnet carries at least one Article 4 direction, and conservation areas including Hampstead Garden Suburb, Mill Hill and Monken Hadley remove those rights outright, so we confirm your exact address before a line is drawn. A validated householder application in Barnet is determined against an 8-week statutory target.
Finchley (1930s semis around Church End), Golders Green (Edwardian and interwar houses near Hampstead Garden Suburb), Hendon (interwar semi-detached estates), Mill Hill (detached houses and the Mill Hill conservation area), Edgware (Metroland semis with hipped roofs) and Totteridge (large plots within the Green Belt and conservation area) — these are the Barnet pockets our drawings cover most. Heritage designations here include Hampstead Garden Suburb, Mill Hill, Monken Hadley, Totteridge and Finchley (Church End). Barnet Council weighs each proposal against Barnet Local Plan and the Residential Design Guidance SPD, where roof form and the symmetry of paired 1930s houses are decisive for lofts. On roofs the borough is hipped roofs on the Metroland semis and steep tiled roofs in the Garden Suburb, over 1930s semi-detached houses, Hampstead Garden Suburb cottages and houses and postwar and detached homes.
A new-build application is a different animal from an extension: you are not adapting a house, you are proposing a building where none stands. Across Barnet the opportunities sit in the gaps — an infill plot between two houses, a backland site behind a garden, a large corner or driveway, or a tired bungalow worth replacing with a full house. The 1930s semi-detached houses, Hampstead Garden Suburb cottages and houses and postwar and detached homes that set the local grain also set the bar the new home is judged against, because Barnet Council weighs whether the design belongs on the street.
The drawings have to make the planning case and the buildable case at once. A scaled site plan fixes the footprint, the boundaries, the parking and the amenity space; the floor plans and elevations show a house that works and reads well; and the design and access statement argues the scheme against the local plan — its scale, its massing, its relationship to the neighbours' daylight and privacy. Hampstead Garden Suburb schemes are assessed against the Suburb's own design code as well as council policy, precisely the kind of policy a new-build design has to satisfy from the first sketch.
Where a plot sits in or beside a conservation area — Hampstead Garden Suburb, Mill Hill, Monken Hadley, Totteridge and Finchley (Church End) among Barnet's — the new house is judged on how it preserves or enhances the character of the place, and a contemporary or a contextual design each has to be justified. Hampstead Garden Suburb is one of London's most tightly controlled conservation areas, with an Article 4 direction and its own Trust scheme of management — most external changes there need consent. We resolve the design approach against the setting before the application is drawn.
Yes — a new dwelling always needs a full planning application to Barnet Council. The design has to answer these questions before it is likely to be approved:
We take the plot from a free feasibility check through the full planning application — site plan, floor plans, elevations and design and access statement — to the building-regs and structural set, coordinating the whole thing so the house that gets permission is the same house that gets built and signed off by Barnet Council.
Below is Barnet Council's real householder decision record, drawn from official planning statistics and refreshed as new data lands. Barnet grants a strong share of householder applications, but its Garden Suburb and Metroland conservation areas apply detailed roof- and frontage-design controls that shape loft and extension schemes. A new dwelling is a full application judged on design quality — a scheme presented with a proper site plan and design and access statement is far more likely to land than a bare set of elevations.
Source: MHCLG planning application statistics (householder decisions, rolling year). 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.
A new-build permission is won on the argument that the plot can take another house and that the design earns its place. Barnet Council's officers weigh the principle of development on the site, the scale and massing against the neighbours, the daylight and privacy impact, the parking and drainage, and the quality of the design itself. Across Finchley, Golders Green and Hendon these are the tests that separate a plot that gets developed from one that stays a garden — and the design and access statement is where the case is made.
Roof form and the symmetry of paired 1930s houses are decisive for lofts. We often recommend testing the principle first — a pre-application enquiry to Barnet Council, or an outline application to fix the acceptability of a new home before the full design spend — then take the approved principle through to a detailed permission and the building-regs set, so a Barnet plot is de-risked before the money goes in.
We design new dwellings on the infill, backland and replacement plots across the borough. A few of the Barnet neighbourhoods where new-build sites come up most often:
New build drawings for a plot around Finchley's 1930s semis around Church End — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Barnet Council's full planning process.
New build drawings for a plot around Golders Green's Edwardian and interwar houses near Hampstead Garden Suburb — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Barnet Council's full planning process.
New build drawings for a plot around Hendon's interwar semi-detached estates — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Barnet Council's full planning process.
New build drawings for a plot around Mill Hill's detached houses and the Mill Hill conservation area — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Barnet Council's full planning process.
New build drawings for a plot around Edgware's Metroland semis with hipped roofs — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Barnet Council's full planning process.
New build drawings for a plot around Totteridge's large plots within the Green Belt and conservation area — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Barnet Council's full planning process.
A new dwelling is judged as a building in its own right. This is what the set has to include and what each part is judged on.
| Document | What it shows | Judged on | Stage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Site plan | Footprint, boundaries, parking and amenity space | Whether the plot can take the house | Planning |
| Plans & elevations | The house that will be built | Design quality and how it sits in the street | Planning |
| Design & access statement | The argument against the local plan | Scale, massing, daylight and character | Planning |
| Structural & regs set | Construction, drainage and structure | Buildability and compliance | Building control |
On a plot in a conservation area — such as Hampstead Garden Suburb and Mill Hill, green belt or a flood zone — Barnet Council requires further justification before a new dwelling is acceptable.
A staged route that de-risks the plot before the full design spend — the principle first, then the detail, then the build.
Send us the Barnet plot and what you want to build. We check Barnet Council's local plan, the site's designations and the likely acceptability of a new dwelling before you commit to design.
We develop a concept and, where it de-risks the plot, test it with a pre-application or outline enquiry to Barnet Council so the principle of a new home is confirmed before the detailed spend.
We produce the site plan, floor plans, elevations and design and access statement, with daylight/sunlight and drainage information where the site needs it, as a complete application.
We submit to Barnet Council, negotiate the design through determination, then produce the building-regulations and structural set and revise it free until the new home is approved and buildable.
Always. There is no permitted-development route to a brand-new dwelling, so a new house — whether on an infill plot, a backland site or as a replacement — needs a full planning application to Barnet Council. The application is judged on the principle of development on the plot and the quality of the design. We check the plot's realistic prospects against the Barnet local plan before you spend on a full scheme.
It depends less on raw size than on whether the plot meets Barnet Council's standards for a new home — adequate amenity space, parking or access, privacy distances to neighbours, and a footprint that sits comfortably in the street. A garden or driveway that looks generous can still fail on overlooking or access. Our free feasibility check tests your Barnet plot against these before you invest in design.
A design and access statement explains and justifies the design of the new dwelling — its scale, massing, materials and how it responds to the site and the local plan — and most new-build applications in Barnet benefit from or require one. It is where the planning case is argued, so Barnet Council's officer can see the reasoning rather than infer it from drawings. We write it to answer the specific policies your plot engages.
Outline permission fixes the principle that a new home is acceptable on the plot without committing to the full design, which can de-risk a site before heavy spend; full permission settles both principle and detail in one go. For a single dwelling in Barnet we often recommend a pre-application enquiry to Barnet Council first, then a full application, but on a marginal plot the outline route can protect you. We advise which fits your site.
Often yes. Replacing a tired bungalow or small house with a better dwelling is a common and viable route, but it is a full planning application judged on whether the replacement is a proportionate improvement in scale and design — Barnet Council will not simply wave through something much larger. On a plot near a conservation area such as Hampstead Garden Suburb and Mill Hill the design is scrutinised more closely. We test the replacement's likely scale before designing.
We price each Barnet new build individually, because the plot, the design ambition and whether the site needs daylight, drainage or ecology support all vary enormously, and send a fixed, no-obligation quote within one working day. It covers the coordinated planning and building-regs set with free revisions until Barnet Council approves. The structural engineer, any specialist reports and the council fee are separate. Call 020 7864 7245 to start.
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