
Drawings for a whole new home — an infill plot, a backland site or a house replaced with something better on your Stockport 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.
Stockport Council granted 92% of the householder planning decisions it made in its latest published year — 5 points above the 87% England-wide householder average. Because Stockport withdrew from the Places for Everyone joint plan, householder schemes are still decided against a dated 2006 UDP pending a new Local Plan, 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.
Before permission is required, Class B allows 40m³ of added loft volume on a terrace and 50m³ on a semi or detached house, and Class A allows a 3m single-storey rear extension on a terrace or 4m on a detached house. Stockport carries at least one Article 4 direction, and conservation areas including Heaton Moor, Heaton Mersey Village and Marple Bridge remove those rights outright, so we confirm your exact address before a line is drawn. A validated householder application in Stockport is determined against an 8-week statutory target.
Heaton Moor (Victorian and Edwardian villas in a protected conservation area), Heaton Mersey (the Heaton Mersey Village conservation area of period villas and cottages), Bramhall (affluent interwar semi-detached suburbia on leafy plots), Cheadle Hulme (interwar and postwar semis around the village core), Marple (stone-built cottages and canal-side housing on the Pennine fringe) and Reddish (dense Victorian brick terraces near the mill heritage) — these are the Stockport pockets our drawings cover most. Heritage designations here include Heaton Moor, Heaton Mersey Village, Marple Bridge, Cheadle Village, Davenport Park and Mill Brow. Stockport Council weighs each proposal against the Stockport Unitary Development Plan Review (adopted 2006) and the emerging Stockport Local Plan (Stockport is not part of the Places for Everyone joint plan), where the borough's exceptionally dense network of conservation-area Article 4 directions catches routine works — windows, rooflights, porches — that would be permitted development elsewhere. Converted villas and terraced flats are common across the Heatons and Edgeley, and flats carry no householder permitted-development rights.. On roofs the borough is gabled slate roofs on the Victorian villas and terraces, hipped roofs on the interwar semis and stone-flagged pitched roofs on the older Marple cottages, over Victorian and Edwardian villas and terraces across the Heatons, interwar semi-detached houses in Bramhall and Cheadle Hulme, stone-built cottages and terraces around Marple and Mellor and Victorian brick terraces in Reddish and Edgeley.
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 Stockport 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 across the Heatons, interwar semi-detached houses in Bramhall and Cheadle Hulme, stone-built cottages and terraces around Marple and Mellor and Victorian brick terraces in Reddish and Edgeley that set the local grain also set the bar the new home is judged against, because Stockport 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. Because Stockport withdrew from the Places for Everyone joint plan, householder schemes are still decided against a dated 2006 UDP pending a new Local Plan, 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 — Heaton Moor, Heaton Mersey Village, Marple Bridge, Cheadle Village, Davenport Park and Mill Brow among Stockport'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. Stockport has thirty-seven conservation areas — the most in Greater Manchester — and around thirty carry Article 4 directions removing permitted-development rights on windows, doors, roofing materials, chimneys and boundary walls, with further Article 4(1) directions over Cheadle Village, Davenport Park and Mill Brow. We resolve the design approach against the setting before the application is drawn.

Yes — a new dwelling always needs a full planning application to Stockport 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 Stockport Council.
Below is Stockport Council's real householder decision record, drawn from official planning statistics and refreshed as new data lands. Stockport grants a high share of householder applications, though its unusually broad conservation-area Article 4 coverage and an ageing development plan are the defining 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. Stockport 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 Heaton Moor, Heaton Mersey and Bramhall 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 borough's exceptionally dense network of conservation-area Article 4 directions catches routine works — windows, rooflights, porches — that would be permitted development elsewhere. We often recommend testing the principle first — a pre-application enquiry to Stockport 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 Stockport 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 Stockport neighbourhoods where new-build sites come up most often:
New build drawings for a plot around Heaton Moor's Victorian and Edwardian villas in a protected conservation area — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Stockport Council's full planning process.
New build drawings for a plot around Heaton Mersey's the Heaton Mersey Village conservation area of period villas and cottages — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Stockport Council's full planning process.
New build drawings for a plot around Bramhall's affluent interwar semi-detached suburbia on leafy plots — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Stockport Council's full planning process.
New build drawings for a plot around Cheadle Hulme's interwar and postwar semis around the village core — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Stockport Council's full planning process.
New build drawings for a plot around Marple's stone-built cottages and canal-side housing on the Pennine fringe — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Stockport Council's full planning process.
New build drawings for a plot around Reddish's dense Victorian brick terraces near the mill heritage — designed to sit in the street and drawn for Stockport 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 Heaton Moor and Heaton Mersey Village, green belt or a flood zone — Stockport 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 Stockport plot and what you want to build. We check Stockport 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 Stockport 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 Stockport 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 Stockport 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 Stockport local plan before you spend on a full scheme.
It depends less on raw size than on whether the plot meets Stockport 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 Stockport 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 Stockport benefit from or require one. It is where the planning case is argued, so Stockport 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 Stockport we often recommend a pre-application enquiry to Stockport 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 — Stockport Council will not simply wave through something much larger. On a plot near a conservation area such as Heaton Moor and Heaton Mersey Village the design is scrutinised more closely. We test the replacement's likely scale before designing.
We price each Stockport 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 Stockport Council approves. The structural engineer, any specialist reports and the council fee are separate. Call 020 7864 7245 to start.
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