Two plans apply at once.
The 2017 Local Plan still governs. A review submitted in September 2025 is under examination, and already carries weight.
Read moreRIBA Chartered · West Midlands
Architects in Coventry.
Homes, conversions and commercial sites. Find out what yours will take.
Selected work in Coventry
Employment land · Coventry
An indoor padel club
Backed in principle at pre-application, on a protected employment site.
View project
Back-land plot · Burton Green
Hob Lane, Burton Green
One bungalow replaced by four homes, granted at committee.
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Conservation area · Coventry
Foleshill Road
Thirty-four homes in construction on a conservation-area corner: ten we designed, twenty-four inside a locally listed 1906 works.
View projectPlanning in Coventry · 01
Know what the council will ask for.
Coventry runs an adopted plan and a plan under examination at the same time, over a deep layer of its own guidance. Six things shape most schemes here.
The opportunity is brownfield.
The review proposes no Green Belt boundary changes, and every new housing allocation sits on previously developed land.
Read moreDensity is already decided.
Around 35 homes a hectare outside the ring road, roughly 200 within it, about 30 on greenfield land.
Read moreArticle 4 changes what you can do.
Several conservation areas carry directions that remove permitted development rights street by street.
Read moreRented housing has its own rulebook.
Student, Build to Rent, co-living and HMO each answer to a different policy, and Coventry is specific about all four.
Read moreEmployment land takes an argument.
Releasing it needs marketing and viability evidence. We are making that case on our own Coventry scheme.
Read moreCoventry City Council policy, correct at July 2026, including the review under examination. Figures move while a plan is being examined, so we re-check them at the point of application.
The proof
One street. Thirty-four homes.
Foleshill Road
A conservation-area corner. Ten studio apartments we designed and took through planning, granted in January 2024, next to a locally listed 1906 works becoming twenty-four more homes.
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Every application we make is a matter of public record on a council planning register. Ours reach across more than 100 UK planning authorities, and the practice has been working since 1970.
Who we work with · 02
Start from what you are building.
Developers, homeowners and commercial clients all need the same first answer: what will this site take? The route to it changes with the project.
For developers
Apartments, conversions and urban infill, from residential architects who design schemes that are viable and buildable, with the planning case built in from the first sketch.
Residential developmentFor homeowners
Extensions, conversions, self-build plots and new homes, including work inside the city's conservation areas, designed around how you live.
Private homesCommercial and mixed-use
Employment sites, hospitality and mixed-use conversions, from commercial architects who argue the case with the evidence Coventry expects to see.
Commercial workWhy Rickett · 03
Start a conversation Why clients come back.
Work with a team already building in your city.
Thirty-four homes are in construction on one Foleshill Road corner. Your scheme would not be our first conservation-area argument in Coventry, or our first buried constraint.
Get to a decision sooner.
Straight to a complete, valid submission. The delays that cost a programme are the avoidable ones, not the statutory clock.
A lead architect, start to finish.
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.
Know the site before you commit to it.
Appraised properly, in the open, by someone who knows what a council needs to see and when the right answer is to push back.
Article 4 TPOKnow the guidance your officer will quote.
Coventry decides against its own Article 4 directions, HMO plan and design guides, not the Local Plan alone. You get that rulebook read before the scheme is drawn, not after the first comment comes back.
Article 4 HMO plan design guides Local PlanSpend once the risk is down, not before.
Costs 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 spendLet someone else hold the list.
From 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 dischargeWorking on a site in Coventry?
Tell us about it and a Senior Architect will give you an initial appraisal and guide you as to what to do next.
Start a conversationCommon questions · 04
Questions about building in Coventry.
Do you work on projects in Coventry?
Yes. A conservation-area house, an employment-land building and thirty-four homes now in construction on Foleshill Road are all current or recent Coventry work. You get local architects on your site, from an architecture firm with a record across more than 100 UK planning authorities.
Is Coventry a difficult council for planning permission?
Coventry is exacting rather than difficult. It rewards a scheme that arrives evidenced and validation-ready, and it has said publicly that it may refuse an application without further discussion if its own pre-application advice is ignored.
Can employment land in Coventry be used for housing?
Only with evidence. Policy JE3 protects Coventry's employment sites, so releasing one for another use needs marketing and viability proof that employment use no longer works.
What housing density does Coventry expect?
Coventry expects at least 35 homes a hectare on brownfield land outside the ring road, around 200 within it, and about 30 on any greenfield site. Brownfield is where the numbers favour you.
Can I extend a house in a Coventry conservation area?
Often, yes, but several of Coventry's conservation areas carry Article 4 directions that remove permitted development rights street by street. The designation and any direction over it have to be checked before the starting position is assumed.
Does Coventry support Build to Rent or co-living schemes?
Yes, and with unusual specificity. Coventry's emerging policy sets out design and management rules for both, provided the scheme is genuinely single-managed and self-contained.
Refused in Coventry? Is it worth appealing?
Sometimes, and it is worth a proper look. We read the refusal on its merits and give a straight view on whether the ground for appeal is real before you commit to the process again.
