A planning appeal won in the Cotswolds National Landscape. 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 its main consultation in late August 2026; Stroud started an entirely new plan process in April.
Read moreCheltenham has 2.69 years of housing land, Cotswold District 1.8, Stroud 3.24. All three are deciding applications under the tilted balance that favours new housing.
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 three days before this page was built.
Read moreCheltenham holds 2,602 listed buildings and seven conservation areas, and is reviewing all of them now. 82A The Promenade, our own listed gallery, 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 August 2026. All three are mid-process: Cotswold's new plan opened for its main consultation in late August 2026, Stroud restarted its local plan in April, and the National Planning Policy Framework changed three days before this was written, 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. The scheme is now moving 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. What sits across all three is the Cotswolds National Landscape, the protected area that reaches into Cotswold District and Stroud and laps the edge of Cheltenham itself at Charlton Kings, and it carries real weight in a decision whichever council is deciding it.
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, is in planning now. 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 again, and each decides against its own local plan. What does sit across all three is the Cotswolds National Landscape, the protected area that reaches into Cotswold District and Stroud and laps the edge of Cheltenham itself at Charlton Kings, and it carries real weight in a planning decision whichever of the three councils is deciding it.
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. The scheme is now moving 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 now in 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 can currently show one, which matters because it changes how a site is argued. Cheltenham can show 2.69 years, Cotswold District 1.8 years and Stroud 3.24 years, each from the council's most recent published position. Below five years, the presumption in favour of sustainable development applies, 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, not a fixed cost.
Yes, and we have worked inside it under three different councils. The Cotswolds National Landscape, the renamed Cotswolds AONB, is the largest in the country, covering most of Cotswold District, over half of Stroud, and reaching to Cheltenham's own edge at Charlton Kings. A new National Planning Policy Framework, published August 2026, gives it great weight and requires major development inside it to show exceptional circumstances. We do not claim influence over planning officers; we know the ground because Oakridge Lynch, Jubilee Gardens and Timbercombe Lane are all inside the designation, argued in front of three separate councils.
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, now over five years old) and the Cheltenham Plan (2020); their joint replacement is scheduled for its pre-submission consultation in mid-2026 and submission to the Secretary of State by 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 opens on 24 August 2026. Stroud's 2015 Local Plan is now, 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 2026All three councils are currently short of the five years of deliverable housing land the government expects, so the presumption in favour of sustainable development, the "tilted balance", applies to most applications in all three areas.
Cheltenham can show 2.69 years, as at March 2025, against a requirement swollen by a mandatory twenty per cent buffer after its Housing Delivery Test result fell below 75 per cent. Cotswold District can show 1.8 years against the government's standard method figure, a position its own evidence describes as unchanged since the current NPPF in December 2024. Stroud can show 3.24 years, as at April 2024, the exact 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 Statement, Sept 2025 · Cotswold DC Housing Land Supply Report, June 2025 · Stroud DC Housing Land Supply Update, Jan 2025The affordable housing trigger is not the same size across this page. 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 was published on 17 August 2026, days before this was written, restructuring how it is protected: National Landscapes now sit under Policy N4, which gives great weight to conserving natural beauty and requires major development to show exceptional circumstances and a demonstrated public interest. Separately, 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 not a backdrop, it 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 whole area is currently under a fresh Conservation Area Review, commissioned 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, not asserted.
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 2018 base rate of £80 per square metre is indexed annually and currently stands at £100.63. 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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