Drawings for a whole new home — an infill plot, a backland site or a house replaced with something better on your Enfield 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.
Enfield Council granted 86% of the householder planning decisions it made in its latest published year — 1 point below the 87% England-wide householder average. Green Belt across the north of the borough tightly limits extensions and outbuildings, which is where a policy-literate drawing pack earns its keep. Its dominant Victorian (1837–1901), Edwardian (1901–1910) and interwar (1918–1939) housing stock sets the design brief on most streets.
The permitted-development ceilings are fixed: 40m³ of new roof volume for a terraced loft and 50m³ for a semi or detached house under Class B, plus a 3m single-storey rear extension on a terrace or 4m on a detached house under Class A. Enfield carries at least one Article 4 direction, and conservation areas including Forty Hall, Gentleman's Row and Winchmore Hill Green remove those rights outright, so we confirm your exact address before a line is drawn. A validated householder application in Enfield is determined against an 8-week statutory target.
Enfield Town (the historic core around Gentleman's Row), Winchmore Hill (Edwardian streets wrapped around the Green), Southgate (interwar semis and the Southgate Green conservation area), Palmers Green (Edwardian terraces and the Fox Lane Article 4 estate), Bush Hill Park (Victorian and Edwardian terraces inside a conservation area) and Edmonton (denser Victorian and interwar housing) — these are the Enfield pockets our drawings cover most. Heritage designations here include Forty Hall, Gentleman's Row, Winchmore Hill Green, Bush Hill Park and Fox Lane (Lakes Estate). Enfield Council weighs each proposal against Enfield Local Plan and the Enfield Design Guide SPD, where hip-to-gable and dormer works on paired interwar semis are judged on bulk and the symmetry of the pair. On roofs the borough is hipped roofs on the interwar semis and gabled roofs on the Edwardian terraces, over interwar semi-detached houses, Edwardian terraces and larger detached houses on the Green Belt fringe.
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 Enfield 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 semi-detached houses, Edwardian terraces and larger detached houses on the Green Belt fringe that set the local grain also set the bar the new home is judged against, because Enfield 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 across the north of the borough tightly limits extensions and outbuildings, 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 — Forty Hall, Gentleman's Row, Winchmore Hill Green, Bush Hill Park and Fox Lane (Lakes Estate) among Enfield'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. The Fox Lane (Lakes Estate) conservation area in Palmers Green carries an Article 4 direction, and Enfield's other conservation areas including Gentleman's Row remove permitted-development rights on their streets. We resolve the design approach against the setting before the application is drawn.
Yes — a new dwelling always needs a full planning application to Enfield 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 Enfield Council.
Below is Enfield Council's real householder decision record, drawn from official planning statistics and refreshed as new data lands. Enfield grants a solid majority of householder applications, though Green Belt in the north and the symmetry of paired semis constrain what gets approved on many streets. 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. Enfield 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 Enfield Town, Winchmore Hill and Southgate 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.
Hip-to-gable and dormer works on paired interwar semis are judged on bulk and the symmetry of the pair. We often recommend testing the principle first — a pre-application enquiry to Enfield 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 Enfield 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 Enfield neighbourhoods where new-build sites come up most often:
New build drawings for a plot around Enfield Town's the historic core around Gentleman's Row — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Enfield Council's full planning process.
New build drawings for a plot around Winchmore Hill's Edwardian streets wrapped around the Green — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Enfield Council's full planning process.
New build drawings for a plot around Southgate's interwar semis and the Southgate Green conservation area — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Enfield Council's full planning process.
New build drawings for a plot around Palmers Green's Edwardian terraces and the Fox Lane Article 4 estate — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Enfield Council's full planning process.
New build drawings for a plot around Bush Hill Park's Victorian and Edwardian terraces inside a conservation area — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Enfield Council's full planning process.
New build drawings for a plot around Edmonton's denser Victorian and interwar housing — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Enfield 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 Forty Hall and Gentleman's Row, green belt or a flood zone — Enfield 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 Enfield plot and what you want to build. We check Enfield 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 Enfield 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 Enfield 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 Enfield 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 Enfield local plan before you spend on a full scheme.
It depends less on raw size than on whether the plot meets Enfield 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 Enfield 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 Enfield benefit from or require one. It is where the planning case is argued, so Enfield 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 Enfield we often recommend a pre-application enquiry to Enfield 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 — Enfield Council will not simply wave through something much larger. On a plot near a conservation area such as Forty Hall and Gentleman's Row the design is scrutinised more closely. We test the replacement's likely scale before designing.
We price each Enfield 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 Enfield Council approves. The structural engineer, any specialist reports and the council fee are separate. Call 020 7864 7245 to start.
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