Want to build a new house in my back garden

[NickW]

I have a 2 acre plot in rural Suffolk. We do not live within the village development boundary. The planning office has already informally said they would not recommend permission for a new house.

However, I might still give it a bash... but I need an angle.

Here are some plus points:

• Part of my back garden is already fenced off and has been for years

- it looks like another plot.

• It has seperate access via a track which is well established. Although the track crosses the village green, vehicles *are* permitted along it because it's also used by another cottage.

• There are two unsightly delapidated barns (steel/asbestos) which the house would replace

• If the house was a bungalow, it would probably not be visible from the road.

• I have plans for an eco friendly house using solar water heating, passive solar space heating with thermal storage, wood burning stoves, eco friendly building materials and maybe some photovoltaic panels etc.

• There is plenty of room for more than just one extra house, I could offer a plot to put a couple of low-cost houses on, sold to the council at cost.

What do you think my chances are?

Nick

[John Smith]

explain to me how wood burning stoves are eco-friendly?

John

[Neil Jones]

Because they are fuelled by a carbon-neutral, renewable resource which can be produced on site and hence not subject to fuel expended to discover, extract and transport it?

Wood as a fuel is essentially a long-term storage facility for solar energy.

Neil

[Christian McArdle]

Provided that the fuel is obtained from a renewable forest, it is carbon neutral, unlike fossil fuels which release carbon dioxide. Of course, it isn't entirely carbon neutral, as I'm sure the forestry equipment and transportation uses plenty of diesel, but it is probably better than burning oil directly.

Christian.

[IMM]

Firstly, seek advice on a planning consultant in your area.

Building a house to replace the existing one is fine. They can't do much there, apart have a say in the style and size. Do you want to have two houses, and keep the existing house?

Pushing an eco house is a great lever to some authorities. They all spout eco credentials and like to be seen doing something in that area (few do). If you state: renewable materials, the house will follow the local vernacular (or made of wood) and all the eco and low to zero energy aspects as you have stated, they may bend towards you. They can then use your house as an e.g., of their eco credentials.

A 100% eco house is what they want in their area. Many of them partially apply eco aspects on building which are not obviously visible. Say that the house will have temperaure sensors to monitor its performance and that local colleges and uni's will be invited along for presentations of the construction and design and the performance data freely given to them. As a bigger lever, see one of the local uni architects depts and get some of their involvement, no matter how minor. All this adds up to someone caring for the environment and the local community, not just a selfish person who wants to save on fuel bills and locks himself up in his smart house.

Speak to them again with some hard outlines of an eco house design and the prime eco functions. But after you have done the above.

[Peter Crosland]

Two chances really: slim and none. Current planning guidance from central government is that there should be no new development outside the development limits or in open country. Go and take a look at the local plan for details that is available at your local council offices.

[Peter Taylor]

Good advice. And also don't forget Capital Gains Tax. If you build this additional house and sell one of them you'll have to pay 40% of the proceeds to IR.

[IMM]

40% maximum, there are ways of reducing that

[mich]

I certainly hope you are correct on that!

[Neil Jones]

It depends on the council, of course, but it's quite likely that they won't want to deviate from the local plan so if you want to develop outside the designated envelope you will probably have quite a fight on your hands. It also depends on whether they have identified sufficient development sites to cover the predicted new housing requirements of the area - if so you could also be in trouble.

One of the reasons that they can deviate from the plan is if there is a lack of affordable housing for local residents in the area. Your low-cost housing is a good bit of planning gain but I doubt that the council will want to own them - have a word with a local housing association instead.

An eco house was built near where my parents live - it's almost completely burried in the ground. I think the original application was rejected by the city council but it was granted planning permission on appeal to Prezza - the eco credentials plus the minimal impact on the vicinty (it is barely visible) made the case.

Neil

[IMM]

Why? What is wrong with demolishing ugly farm buildings and building a state-of-the-art eco house? The whole country should be spattered with eco house.

[IMM]

message

There are a few web site around explaining it (the IR may have it on theirs) If you have occupied the house for x number of years the rate goes down, etc, etc.

[Peter Taylor]

Please explain

[Neil Jones]

message

This is all from memory and so the figures are probably wrong - the principle is OK though:-

For starters you don't pay CGT on the proceeds, you pay CGT on the profit, so you can deduct the cost of the land, the cost of getting planning permission, the cost of building the house and the cost of selling it.

Any assets owned before April 1998 (I think) are subject to indexation relief which reduces the chargable gain.

After April 1998 you get taper relief which reduces the chargable gain.

You get a CGT allowance of IIRC £7500, which is also lopped off the chargable gain. If you are married you can double this by giving half to your spouse before the sale.

CGT is charged at your marginal rate, so unless you are a higher-rate tax payer you will be charged up to the 40% band at 20% and 40%.

So unless you are an unmarried higher-rate tax payer who already has at least £7500 capital gains this year, you will pay less than 40% on the profit.

Even then, you can sell your principal private residence tax free, so you could build the new house and sell the old one without having to pay any CGT at all.

Or, build the new house, move in to it for a while and nominate it as your PPR. Then sell it and move back into your old one (a bit dodgy this, so you might have to show there was a valid reason why you moved out of and back into your old house, such as letting it to generate some income).

[The Natural Philosopher]

Extremely good if you can find the right group of people to bribe. I never did, but it mst be possble because developers etc seem to e doung it all over the place.

[IMM]

Where are these developers doing it? Last year was the lower house building figures since the early 1920s, yet the big builders made record profits. The government launched an investigation, via Kate Barker, as to why so few houses are being built. It seems the developers are bribing people not to build houses.

[mich]

It makes for the slums of the future for those who are unfortunate enough to live by them quite often.

Its happened round my area in several places. When it was only one in a "back garden" it want noticable, ( well it was actually , but no one said anything) but then the precident was set and several others started doing it and suddenly it was slum land.

More than that the liberty takers arrived and started buying houses with large gardens and then building two or three on the sites ( one was little more than a lay by!). These were not sold as affordable homes, so the locals were still homeless and priced out of the market. And yes, I have seen the eco builders even bigger pounds in pockets when they sell - and no one in the locality benefits , and in a few years all the "eco" has been planned out and changed with "alterations" to the house.

I think planning committes need to be more careful and vigilent on this - I hope they are being.

[mich]

It has been happening where I live too - but not budozing Victorian terraces, simply putting up two or three houses under the guise of making one affordable home ( what affordable at 180K for a 2 bed box with 20ft of garden in rural Cornwall?) and the council had been allowing it.

Its just greed.

[Christian McArdle]

Round our way, the developers seem to be bullzozing any Victorian houses or villas in sight and placing faceless blocks of flats on the plots. It's like the 1960s all over again.

Christian.

[NickW]

Yep, I have 200 ash trees (arguably the best firewood) onsite which could be coppiced.

If the passive solar heating works as planned, I wont use the woodburners much anyway.

Nick