Drawings for a whole new home — an infill plot, a backland site or a house replaced with something better on your Oldham 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.
Oldham Council granted 88% of the householder planning decisions it made in its latest published year — 1 point above the 87% England-wide householder average. Eastern Saddleworth falls inside the Peak District National Park, where the National Park Authority — not Oldham Council — is the planning authority and applies its own stricter tests, 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.
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. Oldham carries at least one Article 4 direction, and conservation areas including Uppermill, Dobcross and Delph remove those rights outright, so we confirm your exact address before a line is drawn. A validated householder application in Oldham is determined against an 8-week statutory target.
Uppermill (flagship Saddleworth stone conservation village of weavers' cottages and converted mills), Dobcross (small gritstone village with a tight historic core around Dobcross Square), Delph and Greenfield (stone hill villages on the Peak District National Park fringe), Chadderton (former mill town of Victorian terraces with interwar and post-war semis), Royton (dense red-brick millworkers' terraces with newer estate infill) and Werneth (inner-Oldham high-density terraces under conversion and HMO pressure) — these are the Oldham pockets our drawings cover most. Heritage designations here include Uppermill, Dobcross, Delph, Greenfield, Lydgate and Grasscroft. Oldham Council weighs each proposal against Places for Everyone (the Greater Manchester joint plan, effective March 2024) alongside the emerging Oldham Local Plan Review and saved Local Plan policies, where the gritstone and stone-slate vernacular of Saddleworth drives numerous conservation areas and materials controls, in sharp contrast to the red-brick urban west. Converted flats and HMOs cluster in inner Oldham around Werneth and Coppice, and none of those units carry householder permitted-development rights.. On roofs the borough is stone-flag and blue-slate roofs on the Saddleworth gritstone cottages and natural slate on the brick terraces, over Saddleworth gritstone weavers' cottages with stone-mullioned windows, Victorian and Edwardian millworkers' terraces in red brick and interwar and post-war suburban semis.
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 Oldham 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 Saddleworth gritstone weavers' cottages with stone-mullioned windows, Victorian and Edwardian millworkers' terraces in red brick and interwar and post-war suburban semis that set the local grain also set the bar the new home is judged against, because Oldham 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. Eastern Saddleworth falls inside the Peak District National Park, where the National Park Authority — not Oldham Council — is the planning authority and applies its own stricter 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 — Uppermill, Dobcross, Delph, Greenfield, Lydgate and Grasscroft among Oldham'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. Oldham's borough-wide Article 4 direction, in force from January 2026, removes the permitted-development right to convert a house (C3) to a small HMO (C4), and further Article 4 controls apply in the Saddleworth conservation areas to protect their stone character. We resolve the design approach against the setting before the application is drawn.
Yes — a new dwelling always needs a full planning application to Oldham 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 Oldham Council.
Below is Oldham Council's real householder decision record, drawn from official planning statistics and refreshed as new data lands. Oldham approves the large majority of planning applications, but the split between protected Saddleworth stone villages and the dense red-brick urban core means design expectations vary sharply across the borough. 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. Oldham 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 Uppermill, Dobcross and Delph and Greenfield 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.
The gritstone and stone-slate vernacular of Saddleworth drives numerous conservation areas and materials controls, in sharp contrast to the red-brick urban west. We often recommend testing the principle first — a pre-application enquiry to Oldham 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 Oldham 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 Oldham neighbourhoods where new-build sites come up most often:
New build drawings for a plot around Uppermill's flagship Saddleworth stone conservation village of weavers' cottages and converted mills — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Oldham Council's full planning process.
New build drawings for a plot around Dobcross's small gritstone village with a tight historic core around Dobcross Square — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Oldham Council's full planning process.
New build drawings for a plot around Delph and Greenfield's stone hill villages on the Peak District National Park fringe — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Oldham Council's full planning process.
New build drawings for a plot around Chadderton's former mill town of Victorian terraces with interwar and post-war semis — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Oldham Council's full planning process.
New build drawings for a plot around Royton's dense red-brick millworkers' terraces with newer estate infill — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Oldham Council's full planning process.
New build drawings for a plot around Werneth's inner-Oldham high-density terraces under conversion and HMO pressure — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Oldham 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 Uppermill and Dobcross, green belt or a flood zone — Oldham 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 Oldham plot and what you want to build. We check Oldham 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 Oldham 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 Oldham 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 Oldham 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 Oldham local plan before you spend on a full scheme.
It depends less on raw size than on whether the plot meets Oldham 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 Oldham 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 Oldham benefit from or require one. It is where the planning case is argued, so Oldham 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 Oldham we often recommend a pre-application enquiry to Oldham 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 — Oldham Council will not simply wave through something much larger. On a plot near a conservation area such as Uppermill and Dobcross the design is scrutinised more closely. We test the replacement's likely scale before designing.
We price each Oldham 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 Oldham Council approves. The structural engineer, any specialist reports and the council fee are separate. Call 020 7864 7245 to start.
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Same fixed quotes, same fast drawings — wherever your project is.