Garden rooms in Richmond: what the rules allow
A Richmond garden room can be built without a planning application when it stays inside the Class E outbuilding limits and no Article 4 direction or conservation-area restriction rules it out. DrawingsDirect draws garden rooms for Richmond homes from £495 as a fixed fee, and can back the design with a lawful development certificate.
Fixed fee from £495 · all prices
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Which limits decide whether a Richmond garden room needs permission?
Class E of Part 1 of the General Permitted Development Order covers buildings in the garden. Two limits catch many schemes. Outbuildings and other garden buildings together must not cover more than 50% of the curtilage, leaving out the original house, and a building within 2 metres of the boundary may be up to 2.5 metres high.
Those are two of several conditions, and they apply to a house, not a flat. Our guide on planning permission for a garden room goes through the rest, and our permitted development explainer shows how the rights work.
Conservation areas and garden rooms in Richmond
Our analysis of the MHCLG Planning Data Platform conservation-area dataset (snapshot retrieved 14 August 2026) finds 85 live conservation-area entries for Richmond upon Thames on the national register. Check your address on the council's own conservation area map before you design anything.
The outbuilding rules can change inside a conservation area, and an Article 4 direction can remove rights altogether. We check both before drawing.
Our analysis of table PS2 shows Richmond made 1,302 householder decisions, prior approvals included, over the four quarters to 2026 Q2, with 83% granted.
Proving a garden room is permitted development
A lawful development certificate is the council's written confirmation that a building, or one you propose to build, is lawful. Our analysis of MHCLG planning application statistics, table PS1, shows Richmond decided 917 certificates of lawful development over the eight quarters from 2024 Q3 to 2026 Q2.
It also gives you a document to show a future buyer. Our lawful development certificate drawings service prepares the plans the application needs.
When a garden room goes to a full application
A room that breaks a limit, such as a taller building close to the fence, needs householder permission. Our analysis of table PS2 shows Richmond made 1,302 householder decisions, prior approvals included, over the four quarters to 2026 Q2, with 83% granted. Excluding prior approvals, 99% were decided within 8 weeks.
Our analysis of the Planning Inspectorate Casework Database (released 1 October 2026) shows 383 householder appeals decided for Richmond between 2021 and 2026, with 43% allowed. These are past results, not a forecast for your garden.
Our fee and what the drawings cover
The starting fixed fee for garden room permitted development drawings is £495, and the pricing page shows every other fee. If the room will be lived in, ask us about Building Regulations drawings, which are a separate job.
Sources
Every figure on this page, where it comes from and a link to the original.
| Figure | Source | Link |
|---|---|---|
| £495 | DrawingsDirect starting fixed fee for garden room permitted development drawings, from the published price list | drawingsdirect.co.uk |
| 50% | GPDO 2015 Sch 2 Pt 1 Class E.1(b): buildings, enclosures and containers must not cover more than 50% of the curtilage, excluding the ground area of the original house (source wording: "would exceed 50% of the total area of the curtilage") | www.legislation.gov.uk |
| 2.5 metres | GPDO 2015 Sch 2 Pt 1 Class E.1(e)(ii): an outbuilding within 2 metres of the curtilage boundary may be up to 2.5 metres high (source wording: "2.5 metres in the case of a building ... within 2 metres of the boundary") | www.legislation.gov.uk |
| 1,302 | Our analysis of MHCLG planning application statistics, table PS2 (district open data table) (released 24 Sep 2026, quarters to 2026 Q2) | www.gov.uk |
| 83% | Our analysis of MHCLG planning application statistics, table PS2 (district open data table) (released 24 Sep 2026, quarters to 2026 Q2) | www.gov.uk |
| 99% | Our analysis of MHCLG planning application statistics, table PS2 (district open data table) (released 24 Sep 2026, quarters to 2026 Q2) | www.gov.uk |
| 383 | Our analysis of Planning Inspectorate Casework Database (released 1 Oct 2026 (Casework Database 2609)) | www.gov.uk |
| 43% | Our analysis of Planning Inspectorate Casework Database (released 1 Oct 2026 (Casework Database 2609)) | www.gov.uk |
| 85 | Our analysis of MHCLG Planning Data Platform conservation-area and article-4-direction datasets (bulk snapshot retrieved 14 Aug 2026) | www.planning.data.gov.uk |
| 917 | Our analysis of MHCLG planning application statistics, table PS1 (district open data table) (released 24 Sep 2026, quarters to 2026 Q2) | www.gov.uk |
Questions people ask
Do I need planning permission for a garden room in Richmond?
How do I prove my garden room is permitted development?
Are there conservation areas in Richmond that affect garden rooms?
How much do garden room drawings cost in Richmond?
Photographs: David Howard (CC BY-SA 2.0); David Hawgood (CC BY-SA 2.0).
