New build drawings in Hackney

Article 4 directions and a dense heritage map

The council has published 77 Article 4 directions covering 197 separate areas on the planning data map. Alongside them are 37 conservation areas and 555 listed building entries. A new building here is almost always next to something protected.

40 entries sit on the Heritage at Risk register. A site that was once a workshop may now be a development plot, with listed neighbours.

Our drawings respond with sections and street elevations at a measured datum, showing the new building against the eaves and ridges beside it, using levels from our measured building survey work.

Policy documents an officer will cite

The development plan is Hackney Local Plan 2033 (LP33), adopted in 2,020. Two guidance documents also bear on small schemes: the Residential extensions and alterations SPD and the Retrofit SPD. The retrofit document matters for any plot that includes an existing building, because it is the council's guidance on upgrading existing buildings.

Hackney is a borough of flats, with just 18.8 per cent of households living in a house and 24.6 per cent owning their home. A new house, as opposed to a block of flats, is therefore an unusual proposal, and the officer will want to see why a house suits the plot. We make that case with the layout and the area schedule, and in the design note submitted with the drawings.

Hackney's minor-scheme record

Hackney decided 689 minor applications in the latest return, a larger number than its householder decisions of 415. It granted 81.6 per cent of the minor group and decided 87.4 per cent in eight weeks or an agreed extension.

Minor cases in Hackney outnumber householder ones, so small schemes, not just extensions, are a large part of the council's caseload. These are historic figures across all minor applications and do not predict a decision on your site.

The statutory period for a non-major scheme is 8 weeks. Our planning drawings in Hackney service sets out how we prepare the application.

Commercial buildings, conversions and the plot that changes use

Many new homes in Hackney are not built on empty ground. They replace a yard, a workshop or a low-value commercial building, and the planning question then has two halves: whether the loss of the old use is acceptable, and whether the new home is good enough. We start the file by recording what is on the site now, its floor area and how long it has been in that use, since the council will ask.

Where the existing building has some value, we test a retained-structure option in the model beside the demolition option and show both to the client, with floor areas and the relevant policy noted. Sometimes keeping the frame is cheaper than clearing it, and sometimes it is not, and the numbers let you decide.

If you plan more than one dwelling, the size of the scheme matters: Major development: 10 or more dwellings, or a site of 0.5 ha or more where the number is unknown. A scheme just below that line is a minor application, and one above it is a major with a longer statutory period of 13 weeks, so we tell you early which side of the line a design falls on.

Our flat conversion drawings service covers the other half of the picture when the answer is to convert and not to build.

Next steps

Send the address. We run the constraints and levy check, and quote a fixed fee. Building regulations drawings in Hackney follow once the design is agreed.

If the council requests amendments, we redraw free until approval, and we make no promise about the decision.