Residential Design Guidelines [RDG's] are set out and published by most Local Council Planning Authorities [LPA].

They are to be used as a starting point when planning your extension or conversion. Most sites and extensions are unique, so each application ultimately will be based on its own merits. However, if you do comply with these guidelines you will have a much better chance of achieving a planning approval. It is much harder for your LPA to reject a planning application if you comply with their guidelines

We hope these Residential Design Guidelines are helpful to you. It is often very difficult to locate this information on Local Planning Authorities websites, we hope we have presented them to you in a much more accessible format.

Please note not all LPA's publish RDG's so you may find that guidelines relevant to your area do not appear in this section.

Some LPA's only publish hardcopies and in these cases we have transferred them to electronic files for you to browse. We are continually adding RDG's to this list. RDG's are continually updated by LPA's. These Documents are updated by your local authority on an ad hoc basis, if you have any concerns as to the currency of these documents please contact us or your LPA.

Residential design guidelines

Reference documents

Documents on this page could be updated at any time, please ensure you check the currency of any information you intend to rely on.