Last year my husband and I bought a new house in Hertfordshire. It is a little cottage in the middle of a huge plot and our plan was to extend it.
We have five children and there isn’t really room for all of us if we can’t create more space.
The council has refused our application and said that we cannot extend it at all because it is in the green belt and it has already been extended too much in the past.
I know the green belt stops new houses being built in the countryside but are they right we can’t extend our cottage? GL (via email)
Green belts are known for being areas where vast developments of new houses cannot be built
MailOnline Property expert Myra Butterworth replies: Most people understand that new houses can’t be built on green belts.
However, what is less well known is that green belts also place heavy restrictions on extensions to existing homes.
And it is these restrictions that you appear to have come up against. We speak to a planning expert about his views on the council’s decision and what your options are going forward.
Martin Gaine, a chartered town planner, explains: Green belts were introduced by the Government immediately after the second world war as part of the modern planning system.
They were intended as rings around existing towns and cities on which nothing would be built, so that developers were encouraged to build within towns rather than allowing them to sprawl outwards endlessly into the countryside.
Martin Gaine is a chartered town planner
So far so sensible, but the green belts have grown steadily over the years. The first green belt encircled London and has now expanded to be three times larger than the city itself.
The 14 green belts in England cover an estimated 1,638,420 hectares and around 13 per cent of the total land area.
Of course, when the green belts were created, there were already villages, hamlets and individual houses on the land that they covered.
It is commonly understood that green belts stop you building new houses, but many people don’t realise that they also place heavy restrictions on extensions to existing ones.
This seems crazy to me: If a house is already there, enlarging it (within the usual planning limits) should be allowed – making existing houses larger does not cause urban sprawl in the way that whole new housing estates do.
National planning policies
The Government’s national planning policies say that extensions are allowed where they are not ‘disproportionate’.
They do not, however, explain what they mean by that. Individual local councils have brought in their own definitions, and it is common for them to say that a house should not be extended by more than 40 per cent, say, of the size of the original house.
It is common for councils to say that a house should not be extended by more than 40 per cent, say, of the size of the original house
The key word is ‘original’. If you buy a house that was extended some time in the past, maybe decades ago, it is possible that the council will simply not allow it to be extended any further, in any way.
In your case, if the council is right that the house has already been heavily extended and those extensions exceed their local policy limits, then I am afraid you are stuck.
You can appeal any refusal of planning permission, but you will not succeed at appeal if your proposal directly contravenes green belt policy.
You can appeal any refusal of planning permission, but you will not succeed at appeal if your proposal directly contravenes green belt policy
An alternative for green belt extension
There is one alternative – houses in the green belt have the same permitted development rights as other houses.
Permitted development rights allow you to extend without needing planning permission at all. They allow you to extend to the side and rear at ground floor level, to the rear at first floor level and the side and rear at roof level.
There are also generous rights for outbuildings, including summer houses, storage rooms home offices and gyms.
Explore those rights as alternative to a full planning application. Permitted development rights are subject to various limitations, so you do not always get exactly what you want but, with a bit of luck, they might give you some of the extra space that you need.
Martin Gaine is a chartered town planner and author of ‘How to Get Planning Permission – An Insider’s Secrets’
