Planning Permission & Building Regulations

for Orangeries

Hazlemere Orangeries can take care of all necessary Planning Permission and/or Building Regulations required for the installation of your Orangery with your local authority - however here is a summary of some basic facts.

Under the present legislation, if certain criteria are met you may not require planning permission in Bucks, Berks, Herts, Middlesex, Oxfordshire, Surrey or West London for Orangeries, unless you are adding an Orangery to a house that has already been extended. In addition, planners and/or developers sometimes place further restrictions on certain properties so it is worth checking if your home has been designated as "new build".

In order to remain exempt from planning permission, Orangeries must adhere to the following principles:

• At least half of the new walls and three quarters of the roof is either glazed or translucent material.
• They need to be built at ground level and be less than thirty square metres in floor area.
• The orangery is separated from the existing dwelling house by external quality door(s).
• Glazing and any fixed heating or electrical installations comply with the applicable building regulations requirements.

From 1st October 2008 new rules for conservatories and extensions took affect which replaced the old rules and affect conservatories as follows:

• No extension forward of the principal elevation or side elevation fronting a highway. This means that any conservatory on the front or side of a house that will be closer to a public highway than the original house will need planning permission. A highway is any public right of way including footpaths. 
• Maximum depth of a single-storey rear extension of three metres for an attached house and four metres for a detached house. The width of a conservatory running along the back length of a house is not constrained at all unless it projects beyond the house which is constrained by rule 3. A house is only detached if there is no solid structure connecting it to a neighbour. A "link" house is therefore not detached nor would be two houses with a common garage. The rules on what counts as being detached have not changed from the previous ones.
• Side extensions to be single storey with maximum height of four metres and width no more than half that of the original house.
• Maximum eaves height of an extension within two metres of the boundary of three metres from the lowest point on the ground.
• No balconies or raised platforms on aluminium or UPVC Orangeries.
• On designated land no permitted development for rear extensions of more than one storey; no cladding of the exterior; no side extensions.
• No more than half the area of land around the "original house" would be covered by additions or other buildings.
• Maximum height of a single-storey rear extension of four metres.

While permitted development rights (assuming the property has any, and there is sufficient intact) can sometimes allow for the construction of bespoke Orangeries without planning permission you may well need to limit their size and the types of material used in construction if you want to avoid building regulations. If an Orangery you are building does not meet all of the above four principles then it will have to comply with the current Building Regulations in full.

For further information on Planning Permission and Building Regulations for Aluminium or UPVC Orangeries visit our High Wycombe Showroom - if you prefer, arrange a free design visit online with one of our expert Orangery designers or freephone 08000 825 825