
Drawings for a whole new home — an infill plot, a backland site or a house replaced with something better on your Epsom & Ewell 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.
Epsom & Ewell Borough Council granted 85% of the householder planning decisions it made in its latest published year — 2 points below the 87% England-wide householder average. At roughly 34 square kilometres this is the smallest borough in Surrey, leaving very tight land supply, 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 Epsom & Ewell Borough Council needs a full application. Epsom & Ewell carries at least one Article 4 direction, and conservation areas including Epsom Town Centre, Ewell Village and Woodcote remove those rights outright, so we confirm your exact address before a line is drawn. A validated householder application in Epsom & Ewell is determined against an 8-week statutory target.
Epsom town centre (Victorian villas and a commercial core within the town-centre conservation area), Ewell Village (a historic village conservation core around the spring ponds), Woodcote (affluent large detached houses on wooded plots near the Downs), Stamford Green (village-green edge cottages beside Epsom Common), Stoneleigh (interwar semi-detached commuter suburbia around the station) and West Ewell (postwar and interwar semis to the west of the borough) — these are the Epsom & Ewell pockets our drawings cover most. Heritage designations here include Epsom Town Centre, Ewell Village, Woodcote, Stamford Green, Chalk Lane and Church Street. Epsom & Ewell Borough Council weighs each proposal against the Epsom & Ewell Core Strategy (2007) and Development Management Policies DPD, with a new Local Plan 2022–2040 in preparation, where Metropolitan Green Belt covers much of the western and southern borough around Epsom Common and Horton Country Park. Converted-flat stock is limited and mostly confined to the town centre and around the station; the suburban wards are dominated by single-family houses that do retain some permitted-development scope.. On roofs the borough is pitched gabled and hipped tiled roofs on the suburban semis and steeper tiled roofs on the detached Downs-fringe houses, over Victorian and Edwardian villas and terraces around Epsom town centre and the railway, extensive interwar and postwar semi-detached suburbia and larger detached stockbroker-belt houses on the Downs fringe at Woodcote.
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 Epsom & Ewell 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 villas and terraces around Epsom town centre and the railway, extensive interwar and postwar semi-detached suburbia and larger detached stockbroker-belt houses on the Downs fringe at Woodcote that set the local grain also set the bar the new home is judged against, because Epsom & Ewell 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. At roughly 34 square kilometres this is the smallest borough in Surrey, leaving very tight land supply, 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 — Epsom Town Centre, Ewell Village, Woodcote, Stamford Green, Chalk Lane and Church Street among Epsom & Ewell'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 borough operates several Article 4 directions, including one over Epsom town-centre office buildings that removes the permitted right to convert offices to homes, alongside directions protecting primary retail frontages and conservation areas. We resolve the design approach against the setting before the application is drawn.

Yes — a new dwelling always needs a full planning application to Epsom & Ewell 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 Epsom & Ewell Borough Council.
Below is Epsom & Ewell Borough Council's real householder decision record, drawn from official planning statistics and refreshed as new data lands. Epsom & Ewell grants a fair share of householder applications broadly in line with the national average, with a very tight land supply and green-belt fringes the main pressure points. 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. Epsom & Ewell 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 Epsom town centre, Ewell Village and Woodcote 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.
Metropolitan Green Belt covers much of the western and southern borough around Epsom Common and Horton Country Park. We often recommend testing the principle first — a pre-application enquiry to Epsom & Ewell 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 Epsom & Ewell 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 Epsom & Ewell neighbourhoods where new-build sites come up most often:
New build drawings for a plot around Epsom town centre's Victorian villas and a commercial core within the town-centre conservation area — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Epsom & Ewell Borough Council's full planning process.
New build drawings for a plot around Ewell Village's a historic village conservation core around the spring ponds — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Epsom & Ewell Borough Council's full planning process.
New build drawings for a plot around Woodcote's affluent large detached houses on wooded plots near the Downs — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Epsom & Ewell Borough Council's full planning process.
New build drawings for a plot around Stamford Green's village-green edge cottages beside Epsom Common — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Epsom & Ewell Borough Council's full planning process.
New build drawings for a plot around Stoneleigh's interwar semi-detached commuter suburbia around the station — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Epsom & Ewell Borough Council's full planning process.
New build drawings for a plot around West Ewell's postwar and interwar semis to the west of the borough — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Epsom & Ewell 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 Epsom Town Centre and Ewell Village, green belt or a flood zone — Epsom & Ewell 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 Epsom & Ewell plot and what you want to build. We check Epsom & Ewell 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 Epsom & Ewell 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 Epsom & Ewell 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 Epsom & Ewell 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 Epsom & Ewell local plan before you spend on a full scheme.
It depends less on raw size than on whether the plot meets Epsom & Ewell 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 Epsom & Ewell 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 Epsom & Ewell benefit from or require one. It is where the planning case is argued, so Epsom & Ewell 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 Epsom & Ewell we often recommend a pre-application enquiry to Epsom & Ewell 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 — Epsom & Ewell Borough Council will not simply wave through something much larger. On a plot near a conservation area such as Epsom Town Centre and Ewell Village the design is scrutinised more closely. We test the replacement's likely scale before designing.
We price each Epsom & Ewell 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 Epsom & Ewell Borough Council approves. The structural engineer, any specialist reports and the council fee are separate. Call 020 7864 7245 to start.
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