
Drawings for a whole new home — an infill plot, a backland site or a house replaced with something better on your Brentwood 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.
Brentwood Borough Council granted 84% of the householder planning decisions it made in its latest published year — 3 points below the 87% England-wide householder average. Roughly 89% of the borough is Metropolitan Green Belt, so most growth is steered to allocated sites and village and countryside proposals face strict very-special-circumstances tests, which is where a policy-literate drawing pack earns its keep. Its dominant Georgian (1714–1837), Victorian (1837–1901), Edwardian (1901–1910), interwar (1918–1939) and postwar (1945–1970) 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. Brentwood carries at least one Article 4 direction, and conservation areas including Brentwood Town Centre, Hutton Village and Ingatestone Village Centre remove those rights outright, so we confirm your exact address before a line is drawn. A validated householder application in Brentwood is determined against an 8-week statutory target.
Brentwood (the town centre with Victorian and Edwardian terraces and a High Street conservation area), Shenfield (affluent interwar and postwar semis and detached houses at the Elizabeth line commuter hub), Hutton (interwar-to-modern suburban housing, with the prestige detached enclave of Hutton Mount), Ingatestone (a historic village with a Georgian and timber-framed core and a station-area conservation zone), Blackmore (a green-belt village of timber-framed and period cottages around the green) and Herongate (a small green-belt village of rural detached and period housing) — these are the Brentwood pockets our drawings cover most. Heritage designations here include Brentwood Town Centre, Hutton Village, Ingatestone Village Centre, Blackmore, South Weald and Herongate. Brentwood Borough Council weighs each proposal against the Brentwood Local Plan 2016–2033 (adopted March 2022), where woodland Article 4 directions remove permitted-development rights over designated woodlands to protect habitat. Converted flats appear around Brentwood town centre and Shenfield station, and none of them hold householder permitted-development rights.. On roofs the borough is hipped roofs on the interwar and postwar suburban semis and steep tiled and gabled roofs on the timber-framed village cottages, over Victorian and Edwardian and twentieth-century suburban housing around Brentwood and Shenfield, the interwar detached enclave of Hutton Mount, timber-framed and Georgian cores in the historic villages of Ingatestone and Blackmore and rural detached and period housing across the green-belt villages.
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 Brentwood 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 Victorian and Edwardian and twentieth-century suburban housing around Brentwood and Shenfield, the interwar detached enclave of Hutton Mount, timber-framed and Georgian cores in the historic villages of Ingatestone and Blackmore and rural detached and period housing across the green-belt villages that set the local grain also set the bar the new home is judged against, because Brentwood Borough 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. Roughly 89% of the borough is Metropolitan Green Belt, so most growth is steered to allocated sites and village and countryside proposals face strict very-special-circumstances tests, 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 — Brentwood Town Centre, Hutton Village, Ingatestone Village Centre, Blackmore, South Weald and Herongate among Brentwood'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. Brentwood's Article 4 directions are used chiefly to withdraw permitted-development rights over designated woodlands so that works there require planning permission, and the borough's thirteen conservation areas such as Hutton Village and Ingatestone add further character controls. We resolve the design approach against the setting before the application is drawn.

Yes — a new dwelling always needs a full planning application to Brentwood Borough 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 Brentwood Borough Council.
Below is Brentwood Borough Council's real householder decision record, drawn from official planning statistics and refreshed as new data lands. Brentwood grants a little below the national average of applications, with heavy Green Belt coverage and conservation-village character the pressures that shape most 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, 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.
A new-build permission is won on the argument that the plot can take another house and that the design earns its place. Brentwood Borough 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 Brentwood, Shenfield and Hutton 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.
Woodland Article 4 directions remove permitted-development rights over designated woodlands to protect habitat. We often recommend testing the principle first — a pre-application enquiry to Brentwood Borough 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 Brentwood 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 Brentwood neighbourhoods where new-build sites come up most often:
New build drawings for a plot around Brentwood's the town centre with Victorian and Edwardian terraces and a High Street conservation area — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Brentwood Borough Council's full planning process.
New build drawings for a plot around Shenfield's affluent interwar and postwar semis and detached houses at the Elizabeth line commuter hub — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Brentwood Borough Council's full planning process.
New build drawings for a plot around Hutton's interwar-to-modern suburban housing, with the prestige detached enclave of Hutton Mount — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Brentwood Borough Council's full planning process.
New build drawings for a plot around Ingatestone's a historic village with a Georgian and timber-framed core and a station-area conservation zone — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Brentwood Borough Council's full planning process.
New build drawings for a plot around Blackmore's a green-belt village of timber-framed and period cottages around the green — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Brentwood Borough Council's full planning process.
New build drawings for a plot around Herongate's a small green-belt village of rural detached and period housing — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Brentwood Borough 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 Brentwood Town Centre and Hutton Village, green belt or a flood zone — Brentwood Borough 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 Brentwood plot and what you want to build. We check Brentwood Borough 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 Brentwood Borough 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 Brentwood Borough 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 Brentwood Borough 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 Brentwood local plan before you spend on a full scheme.
It depends less on raw size than on whether the plot meets Brentwood Borough 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 Brentwood 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 Brentwood benefit from or require one. It is where the planning case is argued, so Brentwood Borough 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 Brentwood we often recommend a pre-application enquiry to Brentwood Borough 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 — Brentwood Borough Council will not simply wave through something much larger. On a plot near a conservation area such as Brentwood Town Centre and Hutton Village the design is scrutinised more closely. We test the replacement's likely scale before designing.
We price each Brentwood 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 Brentwood Borough Council approves. The structural engineer, any specialist reports and the council fee are separate. Call 020 7864 7245 to start.
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.