Planning
Buyer Beware: On the exorbitant cost of building works
Brexit and Covid have utterly changed the landscape in terms of what it costs to renovate a property - but the marketplace remains massively underprepared and ill-informed, warns buying agent Guy Meacock……
Gove puts planning reform on hold
New Housing Minister Michael Gove has put a major suite of planning reforms on hold, following opposition from backbench MPs.
Johnson & Jenrick plot planning reform u-turn
“Radical” proposed planning reforms are likely to be substantially watered down, according to political insiders.
Green light for U+I’s massive Greenwich riverside development
Designed by architecture practice OMA for developer U+I, Morden Wharf promises to deliver 1,500 new homes on Greenwich Peninsula, as well as a four-acre public park, a Thames-side beach, brewery, a public…
Plans revealed for 850 new homes next to Britain’s biggest film studio complex
The Wrotham Park Estate has grand plans to create a new residential community around the UK’s first "film industry cluster", in Hertfordshire.
British Land opens Canada Dock ‘urban wetland’ plan for public view
In Pictures: Property developer plans a new waterside park in Southwark, "where people can really interact with nature and connect to the area’s rich maritime history."
Government pitches a ‘major scaling up’ of custom & self-built homes
30-40,000 custom and self-build (CSB) homes could and should be built in the UK each year, says Richard Bacon, in a report that rails against "houses designed by accountants".
Savills assembles heavyweight new Environment & Infrastructure team
A trio of senior directors have been brought together to advise on infrastructure and planning projects across the UK, including environmental impact assessment and Nationally Significant Infrastructure…
Surrey planners approve a new ‘Para 80’ country house clause project
Manser Medal-winning architecture practice Eldridge has secured approval for a contemporary country mansion in the Surrey Hills, under the newly-updated Paragraph 80 of the NPPF (formerly Para 79).
Slow planning process causes long project delays for architects
Around a third of architecture practices have seen projects delayed by six months or more as a result of slow planning processes. 7% have seen some projects abandoned altogether.
Neighbours push back on Hampstead gap house plans
Proposals to turn a pair of garages into a six-bed house have not gone down well with one of Britain’s best-known broadcasters…
Mega Digs: Exploring London’s elite ‘basement belt’
London has seen "a normalisation of single-storey basements as the 21st-century version of the loft conversion," says Professor Burrows in a new study of the capital's "luxified troglodytism".