
Drawings for a whole new home — an infill plot, a backland site or a house replaced with something better on your Reigate & Banstead 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.
Reigate & Banstead Borough Council granted 87% of the householder planning decisions it made in its latest published year — level with the 87% England-wide householder average. A double landscape constraint applies in the south, combining Metropolitan Green Belt with the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, 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 Reigate & Banstead Borough Council needs a full application. Reigate & Banstead carries at least one Article 4 direction, and conservation areas including Reigate, Redhill and Banstead Village remove those rights outright, so we confirm your exact address before a line is drawn. A validated householder application in Reigate & Banstead is determined against an 8-week statutory target.
Reigate (historic market town with Victorian and Edwardian conservation cores), Redhill (a Victorian railway-junction town with postwar and new-build regeneration), Banstead (low-density 1930s interwar semis around a village core), Horley (a southern town of postwar and ongoing new-build estates), Merstham (Victorian terraces alongside the postwar New Merstham estates) and Nutfield (a rural village in the Green Belt and Surrey Hills setting) — these are the Reigate & Banstead pockets our drawings cover most. Heritage designations here include Reigate, Redhill, Banstead Village, Reigate Heath, Nutfield and Merstham. Reigate & Banstead Borough Council weighs each proposal against the Reigate & Banstead Core Strategy (adopted 2014) and Development Management Plan (adopted 2019), where the 2019 Development Management Plan released nine Green Belt sites as sustainable urban extensions for around 845 homes, a notable managed release. Flats are a meaningful share of stock in the Redhill and Reigate town centres and at Merstham, and converted flats hold no householder permitted-development rights.. On roofs the borough is pitched clay and concrete-tile gabled and hipped roofs on the interwar semis and steeper tiled roofs on the Victorian mansions of Reigate Hill and Wray Common, over Victorian and Edwardian streets in Reigate and around Redhill's railway junction, abundant low-density 1930s interwar semis in Banstead, postwar and modern estate housing in Redhill, Horley and Merstham and village vernacular in the rural Green Belt and Surrey Hills settlements.
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 Reigate & Banstead 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 streets in Reigate and around Redhill's railway junction, abundant low-density 1930s interwar semis in Banstead, postwar and modern estate housing in Redhill, Horley and Merstham and village vernacular in the rural Green Belt and Surrey Hills settlements that set the local grain also set the bar the new home is judged against, because Reigate & Banstead 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. A double landscape constraint applies in the south, combining Metropolitan Green Belt with the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, 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 — Reigate, Redhill, Banstead Village, Reigate Heath, Nutfield and Merstham among Reigate & Banstead'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. An Article 4 direction in force from February 2026 removes the permitted right to change ground-floor commercial units to residential across the borough's town and local centres, protecting retail and services frontages. We resolve the design approach against the setting before the application is drawn.

Yes — a new dwelling always needs a full planning application to Reigate & Banstead 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 Reigate & Banstead Borough Council.
Below is Reigate & Banstead Borough Council's real householder decision record, drawn from official planning statistics and refreshed as new data lands. Reigate & Banstead grants a fair share of householder applications broadly at the national norm, higher than the most heavily green-belted Surrey neighbours, with the AONB and Green Belt the main constraints in the south. 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. Reigate & Banstead 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 Reigate, Redhill and Banstead 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 2019 Development Management Plan released nine Green Belt sites as sustainable urban extensions for around 845 homes, a notable managed release. We often recommend testing the principle first — a pre-application enquiry to Reigate & Banstead 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 Reigate & Banstead 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 Reigate & Banstead neighbourhoods where new-build sites come up most often:
New build drawings for a plot around Reigate's historic market town with Victorian and Edwardian conservation cores — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Reigate & Banstead Borough Council's full planning process.
New build drawings for a plot around Redhill's a Victorian railway-junction town with postwar and new-build regeneration — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Reigate & Banstead Borough Council's full planning process.
New build drawings for a plot around Banstead's low-density 1930s interwar semis around a village core — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Reigate & Banstead Borough Council's full planning process.
New build drawings for a plot around Horley's a southern town of postwar and ongoing new-build estates — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Reigate & Banstead Borough Council's full planning process.
New build drawings for a plot around Merstham's Victorian terraces alongside the postwar New Merstham estates — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Reigate & Banstead Borough Council's full planning process.
New build drawings for a plot around Nutfield's a rural village in the Green Belt and Surrey Hills setting — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Reigate & Banstead 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 Reigate and Redhill, green belt or a flood zone — Reigate & Banstead 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 Reigate & Banstead plot and what you want to build. We check Reigate & Banstead 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 Reigate & Banstead 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 Reigate & Banstead 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 Reigate & Banstead 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 Reigate & Banstead local plan before you spend on a full scheme.
It depends less on raw size than on whether the plot meets Reigate & Banstead 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 Reigate & Banstead 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 Reigate & Banstead benefit from or require one. It is where the planning case is argued, so Reigate & Banstead 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 Reigate & Banstead we often recommend a pre-application enquiry to Reigate & Banstead 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 — Reigate & Banstead Borough Council will not simply wave through something much larger. On a plot near a conservation area such as Reigate and Redhill the design is scrutinised more closely. We test the replacement's likely scale before designing.
We price each Reigate & Banstead 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 Reigate & Banstead 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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Same fixed quotes, same fast drawings — wherever your project is.