Drawings for a whole new home — an infill plot, a backland site or a house replaced with something better on your Havering 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.
Havering Council granted 85% of the householder planning decisions it made in its latest published year — 2 points below the 87% England-wide householder average. Green Belt coverage across the east restricts the scale of extensions and any new outbuildings on affected plots, which is where a policy-literate drawing pack earns its keep. Its dominant 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. Havering carries at least one Article 4 direction, and conservation areas including Langtons (Hornchurch), Upminster (Tithe Barn) and Rainham Village remove those rights outright, so we confirm your exact address before a line is drawn. A validated householder application in Havering is determined against an 8-week statutory target.
Romford (denser interwar and postwar housing around the town centre and Marshalls Park), Hornchurch (interwar semis and the Langtons conservation area), Upminster (larger suburban homes near the Tithe Barn conservation area), Emerson Park (low-density detached houses on generous plots under Article 4), Rainham (historic village core alongside newer housing near the Thames marshes) and Elm Park (planned interwar semi-detached suburb) — these are the Havering pockets our drawings cover most. Heritage designations here include Langtons (Hornchurch), Upminster (Tithe Barn), Rainham Village, Emerson Park and Corbets Tey. Havering Council weighs each proposal against Havering Local Plan 2016–2031 and the borough's residential extensions and alterations guidance, where generous plot sizes make front-of-house impact and the gaps between detached homes a key design test. On roofs the borough is hipped roofs on the suburban semis and gabled roofs on the detached and older stock, over interwar and postwar semi-detached houses, detached houses on larger plots and village-core cottages and period frontages.
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 Havering 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 village-core cottages and period frontages that set the local grain also set the bar the new home is judged against, because Havering 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 coverage across the east restricts the scale of extensions and any new outbuildings on affected plots, 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 — Langtons (Hornchurch), Upminster (Tithe Barn), Rainham Village, Emerson Park and Corbets Tey among Havering'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. Prized low-density enclaves such as Emerson Park sit under Article 4 controls, and with much of eastern Havering falling inside Metropolitan Green Belt, extension potential is tightly held on the borough's fringes. We resolve the design approach against the setting before the application is drawn.
Yes — a new dwelling always needs a full planning application to Havering 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 Havering Council.
Below is Havering Council's real householder decision record, drawn from official planning statistics and refreshed as new data lands. Havering grants a fair majority of householder applications, with extensive Green Belt on its eastern side the main brake on what larger schemes can achieve. 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. Havering 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 Romford, Hornchurch and Upminster 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.
Generous plot sizes make front-of-house impact and the gaps between detached homes a key design test. We often recommend testing the principle first — a pre-application enquiry to Havering 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 Havering 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 Havering neighbourhoods where new-build sites come up most often:
New build drawings for a plot around Romford's denser interwar and postwar housing around the town centre and Marshalls Park — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Havering Council's full planning process.
New build drawings for a plot around Hornchurch's interwar semis and the Langtons conservation area — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Havering Council's full planning process.
New build drawings for a plot around Upminster's larger suburban homes near the Tithe Barn conservation area — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Havering Council's full planning process.
New build drawings for a plot around Emerson Park's low-density detached houses on generous plots under Article 4 — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Havering Council's full planning process.
New build drawings for a plot around Rainham's historic village core alongside newer housing near the Thames marshes — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Havering Council's full planning process.
New build drawings for a plot around Elm Park's planned interwar semi-detached suburb — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Havering 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 Langtons (Hornchurch) and Upminster (Tithe Barn), green belt or a flood zone — Havering 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 Havering plot and what you want to build. We check Havering 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 Havering 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 Havering 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 Havering 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 Havering local plan before you spend on a full scheme.
It depends less on raw size than on whether the plot meets Havering 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 Havering 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 Havering benefit from or require one. It is where the planning case is argued, so Havering 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 Havering we often recommend a pre-application enquiry to Havering 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 — Havering Council will not simply wave through something much larger. On a plot near a conservation area such as Langtons (Hornchurch) and Upminster (Tithe Barn) the design is scrutinised more closely. We test the replacement's likely scale before designing.
We price each Havering 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 Havering Council approves. The structural engineer, any specialist reports and the council fee are separate. Call 020 7864 7245 to start.
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