The Home Office and planning permission

Clarification on the requirements (or lack of) for planning permission for your "Home Office"

As it states in our literature, in most cases a "Home Office" requires no planning permission. This however, is not always the case and it is important to ask the local authority about their policy on temporary structures IF you are in any doubt.

The following guidelines where drawn up by David Hicken Associates, Chartered Town Planners and Development Consultants.

This letter offers a summary of our (David Hickens Associates) advice about the need for planning permission.

Use of Garden Buildings

Subject to specific limits and exceptions planning permission is not normally required for buildings in the curtilage (garden) of an existing dwellinghouse. This is providing the intention in constructing it is to use the building for a purpose 'incidental' to the dwellinghouse use. I emphasise however that planning permission will be needed if use as a separate unit of accommodation were proposed.

Permitted Development Tolerances

Subject to the above, 'Home Office' buildings can be erected in gardens under standing permitted development rights. Planning permission will however be required if:

• Any part of the 'Home Office' would be nearer to any highway which bounds the curtilage than (i) the part of the original dwellinghouse nearest to that highway, or (ii) any point 20 metres from that highway, whichever is nearer to the highway.

  In this case the highway also includes a public footpath and two or more sides of a garden may therefore be affected.

• Where the 'Home Office' would be within 5 metres of any part of the dwellinghouse.

  This distance says what it means - 'any part' can mean an existing conservatory, for example. If further away than 5 metres there is no effect on the tolerances (not described in this letter) for extending houses.

• The height would exceed 4 metres, but the 'Home Office' does not.

• The total area of ground covered by buildings or enclosures within the curtilage (other than the original dwellinghouse) would exceed 50% of the total area of the curtilage (excluding the ground area of the original dwellinghouse); or in the case of a Conservation Area, Area of Outstanding Beauty, National Park, The Broads and certain other nationally designated areas of natural beauty and amenity, or land within the curtilage of a listed building, it would consist of the provision, alteration or improvement of a building with cubic content greater than 10 cubic metres.

In the case of some new or extended houses the local authority may have imposed a condition restricting these rights to build when granting the original planning permission. Also, in some areas of particular character the planning authority may have served a general direction to remove these rights from a specified area.

TempleCo Ten Limited cannot grant or exclude you from planning requirements; only the local authority can do this. We hope that the above guidelines answer your planning questions. If there is still doubt, we recommend that you speak to a planning officer of the local authority and explain to them that you plan to install a building in your garden that is "a temporary, de-mountable structure" and ask their advice and assistance.

Martin Page of David Hicken Associates would be pleased to act for you as a consultant. There would of course be a fee involved for his service.

Should you require any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact us. If you do need to apply for planning permission we are able to supply you with scale drawings to support your application.