New build drawings in Harrow

A borough of houses, with green belt at the edge

Harrow is mostly houses, with 65.4 per cent of households living in one and 58.8 per cent owning outright or with a mortgage. Domestic gardens cover 34.7 per cent of the land in the national land use survey, the raw material for most side-plot and rear-garden proposals.

Green belt covers 22 per cent of the council area. On a plot inside it, national policy on inappropriate development applies, and we establish this before any design is drawn. The borough also has 31 conservation areas, 295 listed building entries and 22 Heritage at Risk entries.

The development plan is the Harrow Local Plan 2021-2041, adopted in 2,026. Because it is new, the weight given to older guidance can shift, and we confirm at the time of submission which policies the council is applying.

How Harrow has decided minor schemes

Harrow decided 341 minor applications in the latest return. It granted 60.4 per cent, much lower than the 81.7 per cent it granted among 917 householder decisions, and decided 85.6 per cent within eight weeks or an agreed extension.

The distance between the two grant figures is the reason the geometry above matters. A proposal that reaches an officer with the lines already checked has fewer reasons to be sent back. These are past figures for all minor cases, which include extensions and changes of use, so they are not a forecast for your site.

Our planning drawings in Harrow page covers the application stage in more detail.

Levies and fees

Harrow's borough CIL for new houses is £196.43/m² (Residential, Use Class C3, borough-wide) Mayoral CIL is charged in band 2, at £72.73 per square metre this year. The application fee is £610 per dwelling for up to nine homes.

Once consent is in place, building regulations drawings in Harrow turn the design into construction sheets for the builder.

Turning the two Harrow rules into drawings

A rule that depends on geometry is best checked by geometry. For the sight-line rule we draw the line from the centre of each protected neighbouring window, at the stated angle, on the plan and again on the elevation. Anywhere the proposed building crosses a line, we either cut it back or explain on the sheet why the window is not protected.

For the flank-window rule we mark the boundary, measure the distance to the wall and draw the window schedule beside it. If a flank opening is needed for a staircase or a bathroom, a rooflight or a high-level window of limited size is the usual alternative, and we describe it in the design note so the officer knows it was a choice and not an oversight.

Both checks come before design details. There is little point in refining a facade that must lose a metre of depth, so we run them early and share the result with the client as a short note.

The same discipline protects you in appeal. If an application is refused on a point of geometry, a set that already shows the lines gives a clear basis for discussion, and our planning appeals support in Harrow is available if it comes to that.

What happens first

Send the address. We check green belt, heritage and the levy, send a fixed quote, survey the site and test two or three layouts against the Harrow rules. You choose one in writing. If the council requests changes, we redraw free until approval, and we cannot promise a decision.