Drawings for a whole new home — an infill plot, a backland site or a house replaced with something better on your Bexley 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.
Bexley Council granted 88% of the householder planning decisions it made in its latest published year — 1 point above the 87% England-wide householder average. Green Belt at Crayford Marshes and Foots Cray Meadows tightly limits extensions on the borough's fringes, which is where a policy-literate drawing pack earns its keep. Its dominant Victorian (1837–1901), interwar (1918–1939) and postwar (1945–1970) 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. Bexley carries at least one Article 4 direction, and conservation areas including Bexley Village, Danson Park and Upton remove those rights outright, so we confirm your exact address before a line is drawn. A validated householder application in Bexley is determined against an 8-week statutory target.
Old Bexley (the historic village strung along Bexley High Street), Bexleyheath (interwar semis around Danson Park and the Upton conservation area), Sidcup (1930s houses and older streets near Old Sidcup and Foots Cray), Erith (riverside terraces and postwar housing by the Thames), Crayford (Victorian and interwar homes along the industrial edge) and Welling (dense interwar semi-detached suburbs) — these are the Bexley pockets our drawings cover most. Heritage designations here include Bexley Village, Danson Park, Upton, Old Sidcup and Foots Cray. Bexley Council weighs each proposal against the Bexley Local Plan and the borough's design guidance for householder development, where hipped roofs on paired semis mean hip-to-gable and dormers are judged on bulk and the pair's balance. On roofs the borough is hipped roofs on the interwar and postwar semis and gabled roofs on the detached houses, over interwar and postwar semi-detached houses, detached houses on larger plots and riverside and Victorian terraces.
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 Bexley 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 interwar and postwar semi-detached houses, detached houses on larger plots and riverside and Victorian terraces that set the local grain also set the bar the new home is judged against, because Bexley 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. Green Belt at Crayford Marshes and Foots Cray Meadows tightly limits extensions on the borough's fringes, 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 — Bexley Village, Danson Park, Upton, Old Sidcup and Foots Cray among Bexley'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. Bexley applies Article 4 directions in conservation areas such as Bexley Village and Danson Park, and parts of the borough fall within Metropolitan Green Belt where extensions are firmly restricted. We resolve the design approach against the setting before the application is drawn.
Yes — a new dwelling always needs a full planning application to Bexley 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 Bexley Council.
Below is Bexley Council's real householder decision record, drawn from official planning statistics and refreshed as new data lands. Bexley approves a strong majority of householder applications, with Metropolitan Green Belt on its edges and the symmetry of paired suburban semis the main factors shaping approvals. 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. Bexley 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 Old Bexley, Bexleyheath and Sidcup 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.
Hipped roofs on paired semis mean hip-to-gable and dormers are judged on bulk and the pair's balance. We often recommend testing the principle first — a pre-application enquiry to Bexley 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 Bexley 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 Bexley neighbourhoods where new-build sites come up most often:
New build drawings for a plot around Old Bexley's the historic village strung along Bexley High Street — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Bexley Council's full planning process.
New build drawings for a plot around Bexleyheath's interwar semis around Danson Park and the Upton conservation area — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Bexley Council's full planning process.
New build drawings for a plot around Sidcup's 1930s houses and older streets near Old Sidcup and Foots Cray — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Bexley Council's full planning process.
New build drawings for a plot around Erith's riverside terraces and postwar housing by the Thames — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Bexley Council's full planning process.
New build drawings for a plot around Crayford's Victorian and interwar homes along the industrial edge — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Bexley Council's full planning process.
New build drawings for a plot around Welling's dense interwar semi-detached suburbs — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Bexley 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 Bexley Village and Danson Park, green belt or a flood zone — Bexley 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 Bexley plot and what you want to build. We check Bexley 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 Bexley 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 Bexley 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 Bexley 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 Bexley local plan before you spend on a full scheme.
It depends less on raw size than on whether the plot meets Bexley 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 Bexley 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 Bexley benefit from or require one. It is where the planning case is argued, so Bexley 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 Bexley we often recommend a pre-application enquiry to Bexley 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 — Bexley Council will not simply wave through something much larger. On a plot near a conservation area such as Bexley Village and Danson Park the design is scrutinised more closely. We test the replacement's likely scale before designing.
We price each Bexley 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 Bexley Council approves. The structural engineer, any specialist reports and the council fee are separate. Call 020 7864 7245 to start.
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