Drawings for a whole new home — an infill plot, a backland site or a house replaced with something better on your Salford 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.
Salford City Council granted 90% of the householder planning decisions it made in its latest published year — 3 points above the 87% England-wide householder average. Large parts of Worsley, Boothstown and the north-west sit in Green Belt, where extensions face the openness test rather than ordinary householder policy, 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. Salford carries at least one Article 4 direction, and conservation areas including Ellesmere Park, The Cliff and Worsley Village remove those rights outright, so we confirm your exact address before a line is drawn. A validated householder application in Salford is determined against an 8-week statutory target.
Eccles (Victorian suburb wrapping the affluent Ellesmere Park conservation area), Worsley (the historic Worsley Village conservation area on the Bridgewater Canal), Swinton (interwar and postwar semi-detached estates), Monton (Victorian villas around the Monton Green conservation area), Ordsall (Victorian terraces and redeveloped streets near the Quays) and Higher Broughton (Victorian villas and cobbled streets in The Cliff conservation area) — these are the Salford pockets our drawings cover most. Heritage designations here include Ellesmere Park, The Cliff, Worsley Village, Monton Green, The Crescent and Roe Green. Salford City Council weighs each proposal against the Salford Local Plan: Development Management Policies and Designations (adopted 2023) and the Places for Everyone joint Greater Manchester plan, where flood risk along the River Irwell and Salford's brooks pulls sequential and mitigation questions into riverside schemes. Converted period houses and canal-side apartments are common around Broughton and the Quays, and flats carry no householder permitted-development rights.. On roofs the borough is gabled, slate pitched roofs on the terraces and hipped roofs on the interwar semis, over Victorian and Edwardian brick terraces around Ordsall, Pendleton and Weaste, grand Victorian and Edwardian villas in Ellesmere Park and The Cliff, interwar and postwar semi-detached houses across Swinton and Walkden and new-build apartments at Salford Quays and along the Irwell.
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 Salford 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 brick terraces around Ordsall, Pendleton and Weaste, grand Victorian and Edwardian villas in Ellesmere Park and The Cliff, interwar and postwar semi-detached houses across Swinton and Walkden and new-build apartments at Salford Quays and along the Irwell that set the local grain also set the bar the new home is judged against, because Salford City 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. Large parts of Worsley, Boothstown and the north-west sit in Green Belt, where extensions face the openness test rather than ordinary householder policy, 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 — Ellesmere Park, The Cliff, Worsley Village, Monton Green, The Crescent and Roe Green among Salford'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. Salford's sixteen conservation areas — Ellesmere Park and The Cliff among them — carry Article 4 directions that remove permitted-development rights on windows, roofs and boundary treatments, so external alterations on these Victorian streets need consent even where an ordinary suburban house would not. We resolve the design approach against the setting before the application is drawn.
Yes — a new dwelling always needs a full planning application to Salford City 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 Salford City Council.
Below is Salford City Council's real householder decision record, drawn from official planning statistics and refreshed as new data lands. Salford grants a high share of householder applications, with Green Belt openness to the west and conservation-area character in the Victorian suburbs the main constraints. 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. Salford City 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 Eccles, Worsley and Swinton 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.
Flood risk along the River Irwell and Salford's brooks pulls sequential and mitigation questions into riverside schemes. We often recommend testing the principle first — a pre-application enquiry to Salford City 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 Salford 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 Salford neighbourhoods where new-build sites come up most often:
New build drawings for a plot around Eccles's Victorian suburb wrapping the affluent Ellesmere Park conservation area — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Salford City Council's full planning process.
New build drawings for a plot around Worsley's the historic Worsley Village conservation area on the Bridgewater Canal — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Salford City Council's full planning process.
New build drawings for a plot around Swinton's interwar and postwar semi-detached estates — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Salford City Council's full planning process.
New build drawings for a plot around Monton's Victorian villas around the Monton Green conservation area — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Salford City Council's full planning process.
New build drawings for a plot around Ordsall's Victorian terraces and redeveloped streets near the Quays — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Salford City Council's full planning process.
New build drawings for a plot around Higher Broughton's Victorian villas and cobbled streets in The Cliff conservation area — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Salford City 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 Ellesmere Park and The Cliff, green belt or a flood zone — Salford City 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 Salford plot and what you want to build. We check Salford City 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 Salford City 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 Salford City 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 Salford City 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 Salford local plan before you spend on a full scheme.
It depends less on raw size than on whether the plot meets Salford City 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 Salford 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 Salford benefit from or require one. It is where the planning case is argued, so Salford City 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 Salford we often recommend a pre-application enquiry to Salford City 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 — Salford City Council will not simply wave through something much larger. On a plot near a conservation area such as Ellesmere Park and The Cliff the design is scrutinised more closely. We test the replacement's likely scale before designing.
We price each Salford 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 Salford City 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.