Two-storey extension drawings for Reigate & Banstead homes — bedroom above, living space below, drawn against the 3-metre projection and 7-metre boundary rules and to Reigate & Banstead Borough Council's design guidance, delivered in days and revised free until your decision.
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.
Adding at first floor changes the question the case officer asks. A single-storey extension is judged mostly on daylight and garden loss; a two-storey extension is judged on overlooking, bulk against the neighbouring roofline, and whether it reads as part of the house or bolted onto it. Reigate & Banstead is largely 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, and 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 set what a matching roof actually means here.
The permitted-development route exists but is narrow: 3 metres of rear projection, a 7-metre stand-off from the rear boundary, eaves and ridge no higher than the original, and side-facing upper windows obscure-glazed and non-opening below 1.7 metres above floor level. Most two-storey schemes fail one of those, usually the 7-metre boundary rule on a shorter garden, and go in as a full application instead. We establish which route applies before designing, because it changes the drawing set.
A double landscape constraint applies in the south, combining Metropolitan Green Belt with the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. 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.
Some two-storey rear extensions are permitted development. You will need a full application to Reigate & Banstead Borough Council if any of these apply:
We set the projection and boundary distance on the site plan, prove the roof-pitch match on the elevations, and specify obscure glazing on the side windows — the three things Reigate & Banstead Borough Council checks first — then submit a validation-complete pack.
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. Two-storey schemes attract more neighbour comment than any other householder work, so the overlooking and daylight case has to be made on the drawings.
Source: MHCLG planning application statistics (householder decisions, England, 1 April 2025 - 31 March 2026). Compare every borough on our London approval-rate league table.
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Across Reigate, Redhill and Banstead, the schemes that succeed set the first floor back from the ground floor, keep the ridge below the original, and treat the flank wall as blank or obscure-glazed. On victorian and edwardian streets in reigate and around redhill's railway junction, matching the eaves line matters more than matching the brick: an extension that carries the existing eaves through reads as original even in a different material.
The 2019 Development Management Plan released nine Green Belt sites as sustainable urban extensions for around 845 homes, a notable managed release. We draw the 45-degree daylight test from the neighbour's nearest habitable window, show the window positions in section, and set out the steel and foundation implications early — a two-storey extension changes the load path, so the structural design and the planning design have to be developed together rather than in sequence.
We draw two-storey extensions across Reigate & Banstead. A few of the areas where they come up most often:
Two storey extension drawings for Reigate — historic market town with Victorian and Edwardian conservation cores — dimensioned against the 3m and 7m limits and drawn to Reigate & Banstead Borough Council's guidance.
Two storey extension drawings for Redhill — a Victorian railway-junction town with postwar and new-build regeneration — dimensioned against the 3m and 7m limits and drawn to Reigate & Banstead Borough Council's guidance.
Two storey extension drawings for Banstead — low-density 1930s interwar semis around a village core — dimensioned against the 3m and 7m limits and drawn to Reigate & Banstead Borough Council's guidance.
Two storey extension drawings for Horley — a southern town of postwar and ongoing new-build estates — dimensioned against the 3m and 7m limits and drawn to Reigate & Banstead Borough Council's guidance.
Two storey extension drawings for Merstham — Victorian terraces alongside the postwar New Merstham estates — dimensioned against the 3m and 7m limits and drawn to Reigate & Banstead Borough Council's guidance.
Two storey extension drawings for Nutfield — a rural village in the Green Belt and Surrey Hills setting — dimensioned against the 3m and 7m limits and drawn to Reigate & Banstead Borough Council's guidance.
The first-floor limits are tighter than the ground-floor ones. This is how the common cases compare.
| Scheme | Permitted development? | Deciding limit | What Reigate & Banstead Borough Council checks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Two-storey rear, 3m projection, 7m+ to boundary | Often yes | 3m projection / 7m boundary | Roof match, side-window glazing |
| Two-storey rear, under 7m to boundary | No — full application | Rear-boundary distance | Overlooking, daylight, garden loss |
| Two-storey side extension | No — full application | Side elevation | Gap to boundary, street rhythm |
| Two-storey wraparound | No — full application | Combined footprint | Bulk, massing, neighbour amenity |
| Any two-storey on designated land | No — full application | Designation | Character and appearance |
Limits from the GPDO 2015, Schedule 2, Part 1, Class A — two-storey rear extension conditions.
A fixed process built around how Reigate & Banstead Borough Council validates and decides two-storey applications.
Send us your Reigate & Banstead postcode and garden depth. We measure the 7-metre boundary rule against your plot, confirm designation status, and score your odds against live Reigate & Banstead Borough Council decisions.
We measure the original rear wall, eaves and ridge heights, garden depth and every neighbouring window that faces the site — the inputs the daylight and overlooking case is built from.
Chartered designers develop the two-storey addition to your brief with the roof and eaves resolved, and we coordinate the load path so the structural scheme and the planning scheme are the same building.
We submit the application, manage validation and case-officer queries, and revise the drawings free until Reigate & Banstead Borough Council issues its decision.
Often, but not always. A two-storey rear extension can be permitted development if it projects no more than 3 metres, sits at least 7 metres from the rear boundary, does not exceed the existing eaves and ridge, and has obscure-glazed non-opening side windows below 1.7 metres. In Reigate & Banstead, the 7-metre rule is what most commonly forces a full application to Reigate & Banstead Borough Council.
No part of a permitted-development two-storey rear extension may come within 7 metres of the boundary opposite the rear wall of the house. It exists to protect the neighbour behind you from being overlooked at first floor. On shorter Reigate & Banstead gardens this is decisive, and we measure it on survey before any design work rather than discovering it at validation. Reigate & Banstead Borough Council is the decision-maker.
Not under permitted development — two-storey side extensions always need a full application to Reigate & Banstead Borough Council. They are assessed on the gap to the boundary, whether the street's rhythm of spaces between houses survives, and whether the extension is subordinate to the original. Setting the first floor back from the front building line and down from the ridge is what usually makes the difference.
Overlooking is the most common objection, and it is answerable on the drawings. We position habitable-room windows away from neighbouring gardens, obscure-glaze and fix shut anything on the flank below 1.7 metres, and show the sight lines in section. Where the geometry is tight, a rooflight or a high-level window gives the same daylight without the mutual overlooking that draws objections. This applies to your Reigate & Banstead address specifically. Reigate & Banstead Borough Council is the decision-maker.
Almost certainly. Excavating within 3 metres of a neighbouring structure and building on or up to the boundary both trigger the Party Wall etc. Act 1996, and a two-storey extension usually does both. It is entirely separate from Reigate & Banstead Borough Council's planning decision, so we flag the notice period early and detail the junction on the drawings.
Yes. Adding a floor changes the load path from roof to foundation, so beams, padstones and foundation depths all need designing and calculating for building control. Planning and building regulations are separate consents, and the structural set is what building control assesses — we prepare both so the approved scheme is the buildable one. This applies to your Reigate & Banstead address specifically. Reigate & Banstead Borough Council is the decision-maker.
We quote each Reigate & Banstead two-storey extension individually, because plot depth, roof form and structural complexity vary house to house, and send a fixed, no-obligation quote within one working day. It covers the drawing pack with free revisions until Reigate & Banstead Borough Council approves. Call 020 7864 7245 to start.
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