We won a Cotswolds National Landscape appeal and put a Cheltenham landmark back in use.
Two contemporary homes for a private client, submitted in the Cotswolds National Landscape.
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Thirty homes, delivered in the heart of the Cotswolds.
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A Grade II listed gallery, opened up across four floors.
View projectCheltenham, Cotswold District and Stroud each decide against their own local plan, and a site inside the Cotswolds National Landscape carries real weight wherever it sits. Six things shape most schemes here.
Cheltenham, Cotswold District and Stroud each work to their own local plan, and all three are being replaced at once. Cotswold's new plan opened for consultation on 24 August 2026; Stroud formally began an entirely new plan on 29 June 2026.
Read moreCheltenham showed 3.12 years of housing land at March 2026; Cotswold District 1.8 and Stroud 3.24 at April 2024. In all three, that opens up well-related sites on the edge of a town or village.
Read moreCheltenham and Cotswold both ask for up to forty per cent from eleven homes. Stroud asks for thirty per cent from just four.
Read moreMost of Cotswold District and over half of Stroud sit inside the Cotswolds National Landscape, reaching to Cheltenham's own edge. National policy on it was rewritten on 17 August 2026.
Read moreCheltenham holds 2,602 listed buildings and seven conservation areas, and put a review of those areas out to tender in late 2025. 82A The Promenade, our Grade II listed gallery project, sits inside the largest.
Read moreCheltenham, Cotswold and Stroud all charge the Community Infrastructure Levy, and all three rates are different.
Read moreCheltenham, Cotswold District and Stroud planning policy, correct at October 2026. All three are replacing their local plans and the National Planning Policy Framework was replaced on 17 August 2026, so we re-check all three at the point of application.
Stroud refused nine homes at Oakridge Lynch on eight grounds in May 2024. We took it to appeal, and the Inspector allowed the scheme in October 2025: the design was found to integrate well with its surroundings, and the benefit of nine homes, three of them affordable, outweighed the limited harm to the Cotswolds National Landscape. After the appeal, the scheme moved into technical design.
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Every application we make is a matter of public record on a council planning register. Ours reach more than 100 planning authorities across the UK, including Cheltenham, Cotswold and Stroud. The practice has been working since 1970.
Developers, homeowners and commercial clients all need the same first answer: what will this site take? The route to it changes with the project.
Allocation sites, brownfield parcels and village schemes, from residential architects who design schemes that are viable and buildable, with the planning case built in from the first sketch.
Residential developmentExtensions, remodels and replacement houses, including the design rules that govern a listed building in Cheltenham or a home inside the Cotswolds National Landscape, designed around how you live.
Private homesShops, galleries, offices and change of use, from commercial architects who argue the case with the evidence Cheltenham, Cotswold and Stroud councils expect to see.
Commercial workA planning appeal just won in the Cotswolds National Landscape. A Grade II listed Cheltenham gallery taken from a stranded upper floor to four in use. Thirty homes delivered at Chipping Campden. Yours would not be our first Gloucestershire scheme, or our first planning appeal.
Straight to a complete, valid submission. The delays that cost a programme are the avoidable ones, not the statutory clock.
A lead architect is involved from the first conversation to the last drawing. The team that starts your scheme stays with it, so nothing is passed down a chain.
Appraised properly, in the open, by someone who knows what a council needs to see and when the right answer is to push back.
National Landscape Listed buildingCheltenham, Cotswold District and Stroud each decide against their own local plan, so which one applies depends on exactly where a site sits. The Cotswolds National Landscape crosses all three: it reaches into Cotswold District and Stroud, laps the edge of Cheltenham at Charlton Kings, and carries real weight whichever council decides.
Cotswolds National Landscape Stroud Cotswold District CheltenhamCosts staged behind certainty. Every commitment sits behind the decision that justifies it, so nothing is spent on a scheme that has not earned it.
appraisal consent your spendFrom first appraisal to final discharge, every survey, report and condition is tracked for you. You are not the one chasing an ecologist in week nine.
Ecology surveyReport inCondition 7tracked to dischargeTell us about it and a Senior Architect will give you an initial appraisal and guide you as to what to do next.
Start a conversationYes, and the evidence spans three planning authorities. A Grade II listed gallery on The Promenade in Cheltenham, taken from a stranded upper floor to four floors in use. Thirty homes delivered at Jubilee Gardens, Chipping Campden, in the heart of the Cotswolds. Nine homes at Oakridge Lynch, Stroud, won at appeal in the Cotswolds National Landscape after the council's own refusal. A fourth scheme at Charlton Kings, on the edge of Cheltenham and wholly within the National Landscape, has been submitted for planning. Applications in our name sit on the registers of more than 100 planning authorities across the UK.
No. Cheltenham is a borough in its own right, Stroud is a separate district, and what people mean by "the Cotswolds" here is mostly Cotswold District, a third council. Each decides against its own local plan. The Cotswolds National Landscape crosses all three: it reaches into Cotswold District and Stroud, laps the edge of Cheltenham at Charlton Kings, and carries real weight in a planning decision whichever council decides.
Yes. Stroud refused nine homes at Oakridge Lynch on eight grounds in May 2024, including harm to the Cotswolds National Landscape. We took the scheme to appeal, and the Inspector allowed it in October 2025, finding the design would integrate well and that the benefit of nine homes, three of them affordable, outweighed the limited landscape harm. After the appeal, the scheme moved into technical design.
A range, from the four projects on this page alone. A listed building brought back into commercial use in Cheltenham. Housing delivered for a developer client in Chipping Campden. A contested site won at appeal in the National Landscape. Two contemporary homes submitted for planning at Charlton Kings. Whichever you are, developer, landowner or private client, the same director-led team handles the design and the planning argument from the first conversation.
No, none of the three could show one on its most recent published figure: Cheltenham 3.12 years at 31 March 2026, Cotswold District 1.8 years and Stroud 3.24 years, both at 1 April 2024. That matters because it changes how a site is argued. Below five years, the August 2026 national framework opens up well-related sites on the edge of a town or village, so speculative and unallocated sites gain a lever they would not have against a five year supply. The position is recalculated at least annually in each council, so it is worth confirming before it is relied on. It was exactly this kind of shortfall, at Stroud, that helped overturn the council's own refusal of nine homes at Oakridge Lynch on appeal in October 2025.
It depends which of the three a site sits in, and the difference is significant. Cheltenham and Cotswold District both ask for up to forty per cent, triggered from eleven homes or 1,000 square metres, with Cotswold dropping to thirty per cent on brownfield land. Stroud's threshold is much lower: thirty per cent affordable housing from just four homes, or any site over 0.16 hectares. All three figures are tested against viability on a site by site basis, so the policy percentage is a starting position for negotiation.
By applying to the council for the address, which for most of the Cotswolds is Cotswold District Council. It takes applications through the national Planning Portal, with the fee and the documents on its validation list, and publishes each one on its Public Access register, where anyone can view and comment. Parts of the Cotswolds fall to Stroud, Cheltenham and other councils, each with a register of its own. Most of Cotswold District lies inside the Cotswolds National Landscape, where policy N4 of the August 2026 Framework places substantial weight on conserving natural beauty and major development should be refused other than in exceptional circumstances. Cotswold District charges for site-specific pre-application advice. Oakridge Lynch, Jubilee Gardens and Timbercombe Lane are all inside the National Landscape.
Three separate local planning authorities decide here, and none of their plans are settled. Cheltenham's applications are tested against the Gloucester, Cheltenham and Tewkesbury Joint Core Strategy (adopted 2017, over five years old) and the Cheltenham Plan (2020); the timetable for their joint replacement, adopted in July 2026, set its pre-submission consultation for the late autumn of 2026 and submission to the Secretary of State for December 2026.
Cotswold District's 2018 Local Plan is being replaced by a new plan covering 2026 to 2043; the main public consultation on the draft ran from 24 August to 5 October 2026. Stroud's 2015 Local Plan is, in the council's own words, "out of date" and carries "significantly reduced weight"; a 2021 draft replacement stalled over motorway junction capacity, and on 30 April 2026 the council resolved to start again with an entirely new plan under the government's revised system, targeting adoption around 2028.
Whichever council a site sits in, check the plan status before relying on any single policy.
Cheltenham Plan 2020 · Cotswold Local Plan 2026-2043, Regulation 19 draft, August 2026 · Stroud District Council, New Local Plan committee report, 30 April 2026On their most recent published figures, all three councils were short of the five years of deliverable housing land the government expects. Under the national framework published in August 2026, that opens up well-related housing on the edge of a town or village in all three areas. Inside a town or village, housing starts from a presumption in its favour whatever the supply.
Cheltenham showed 3.12 years at 31 March 2026, up from 2.69 a year earlier, against a requirement swollen by a mandatory twenty per cent buffer. Its Housing Delivery Test result, published in August 2026, was 56 per cent, well under the 85 per cent below which the buffer applies. Cotswold District showed 1.8 years at 1 April 2024 against the government's standard method figure. Its own evidence says it has not been able to show five years since the NPPF of December 2024. Stroud showed 3.24 years at 1 April 2024, the shortfall that helped overturn Stroud's own refusal of nine homes at Oakridge Lynch on appeal in October 2025.
A shortfall does not mean any site succeeds, but on non-protected land it shifts the argument from "does the plan allocate this" to "does the harm outweigh the benefit". Supply is recalculated at least annually and is worth checking at the point of application.
Cheltenham BC Five Year Housing Land Supply Position Statement, Sept 2026 · Cotswold DC Housing Land Supply Report, June 2025 · Stroud DC Housing Land Supply Update, Jan 2025The affordable housing trigger differs across the three councils. Cheltenham seeks forty per cent on sites of eleven or more homes, or over 1,000 square metres, under Joint Core Strategy Policy SD12; nothing is sought below that.
Cotswold District's Policy H2 asks for up to forty per cent on most sites at the same eleven-home threshold, dropping to thirty per cent on brownfield land, with rural sites of six to ten homes paying a financial contribution instead and rural exception sites normally delivering 100 per cent. Stroud's Core Policy CP9 sets a markedly lower bar: thirty per cent affordable housing from just four homes, or any site over 0.16 hectares, though ten of its larger parishes do not pursue a financial contribution below ten units.
All three figures are subject to viability testing, and all three predate their council's current plan review, so treat them as today's position rather than a fixed one.
Gloucester, Cheltenham and Tewkesbury Joint Core Strategy, Policy SD12 · Cotswold District Local Plan, Policy H2 · Stroud District Local Plan, Core Policy CP9The Cotswolds National Landscape, the renamed Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, is the largest in the country and the constraint that unifies this whole page: it covers most of Cotswold District, over half of Stroud District, and reaches to the edge of Cheltenham itself at Charlton Kings.
A new National Planning Policy Framework, published on 17 August 2026, restructured how it is protected: National Landscapes now sit under Policy N4, which places substantial weight on conserving natural beauty and requires major development to show exceptional circumstances and a demonstrated public interest. Since October 2023 the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act has placed a stronger duty on councils, to actively "seek to further" the National Landscape's purpose rather than merely have regard to it.
None of this rules out development. It means a scheme inside the boundary has to answer the landscape question directly, with evidence, which is exactly what won nine homes their appeal at Oakridge Lynch in the National Landscape in October 2025.
Cotswolds National Landscape Management Plan 2025-2030 · National Planning Policy Framework, Policy N4, 17 August 2026 · Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023, s245Cheltenham's Regency character is the planning position. The town holds 2,602 listed buildings, five of them Grade I, and seven conservation areas, the largest being the Central Conservation Area, around 599 hectares of the town centre and its Victorian and Edwardian suburbs, first designated in 1973 and last extended in 1987.
It is split into nineteen character areas, each with its own adopted appraisal, and the council commissioned a fresh review of its conservation areas in late 2025. 82A The Promenade, our own Grade II listed gallery conversion, sits inside it. Outside the centre, Cheltenham's only Article 4 direction removes permitted development rights for converting houses into small HMOs in the St Paul's area, and the borough has no retail policy of its own at all, relying on saved 2006 policies while a joint retail review remains outstanding six years on.
A heritage argument here has to be evidenced against a live appraisal.
Cheltenham Borough Council, Conservation Areas & Listed Buildings register, accessed August 2026 · Cheltenham Plan 2020All three councils charge the Community Infrastructure Levy rather than relying on Section 106 alone, and the residential rate is not the same in any of them. Cheltenham charges £200 per square metre on sites of eleven or more homes, dropping to £148 below that and to £35 on its two strategic allocations; retail pays nothing.
Cotswold District's base rate of £80 per square metre is indexed annually, to £100.63 for 2026. Stroud's base rate of £80 is indexed to £115.94 for 2026, the highest of the three, though its allocated strategic sites and certain brownfield sites in its Industrial Heritage Conservation Area pay nothing.
Two of the three have their own local colour worth knowing: Cotswold District charges a 100 per cent council tax premium on second homes, in force since April 2025, and Stroud has an adopted Canals Strategy governing the Gloucester and Sharpness and Cotswold Canals corridors. Rates are reindexed each year, so confirm the current figure before a site is priced.
Cheltenham BC CIL Charging Schedule, Oct 2018 · Cotswold DC CIL rates, 2026 · Stroud DC CIL Indexation Guidance Note, 2026
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