Two plans decide, and a third is coming.
An aligned core strategy from 2014 and a policies document from 2020 decide every application. The plan that replaces the first is at examination.
Read moreRIBA Chartered · East Midlands
Architects in Nottingham.
Riverside ground, brownfield and the caves below. Find out what yours will take.
Selected work in Nottingham
Campus café · Carlton Road
A campus café
A two-storey café and roof terrace on a city campus, granted this year.
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Riverside homes · Meadow Lane
Muller Yard
Fifty-eight homes on a former dairy depot beside the Trent, delivered to completion.
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Campus masterplan · Carlton Road
The Carlton Road campus
Three consents secured, and a masterplan for the phases that follow.
View projectPlanning in Nottingham · 01
Know what the council will ask for.
Nottingham decides on a core strategy from 2014 and a policies document from 2020, while the strategic plan that replaces the first has just finished its examination hearings. Six things shape most schemes here.
The five years are already there.
Nottingham reported 6.57 years of deliverable housing land at 31 March 2025, so the tilted balance a shortfall brings elsewhere is not available here.
Read moreA licence is not a permission.
A citywide Article 4 direction has required permission to turn a family house into a small HMO since 2012, and the council says it is highly unlikely to be granted.
Read moreTen homes, then twenty per cent.
Policy HO3 asks for affordable home ownership from ten homes, and 20 per cent affordable housing from fifteen homes or half a hectare.
Read moreAssume the caves are there.
More than 800 caves are recorded under the city. In the city centre a site is assumed to have them until a survey shows otherwise.
Read moreNo levy, so everything is negotiated.
Nottingham charges no Community Infrastructure Levy. Contributions come through Section 106, and the council publishes an estimator you can run yourself.
Read moreNottingham City Council policy, correct at August 2026. The strategic plan is mid-examination and the housing land position is restated every year, so we re-check them at the point of application.
The proof
Fifty-eight homes beside the Trent.
Muller Yard, Meadow Lane
A former dairy depot in Flood Zone 3 on the bank of the Trent, taken from technical design through construction to handover. Fifty-eight homes, built.
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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. 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 riverside brownfield sites, 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, remodels and conversions, including the family-housing rules that decide what a Nottingham house is allowed to become, designed around how you live.
Private homesCommercial and mixed-use
Shops, offices, campus and community buildings and mixed-use conversions, from commercial architects who argue the case with the evidence Nottingham expects to see.
Commercial workWhy Rickett · 03
Start a conversation Why clients come back.
Work with a team that has already built here.
Fifty-eight homes finished on a former dairy depot beside the Trent. Three consents on a city campus at Carlton Road. Yours would not be our first Nottingham flood risk, 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.
Flood Zone 3 CavesBuild on ground the river reaches.
The city's regeneration land runs along the Trent and the Leen, so flood risk sets levels, layout and safe access long before elevations do. Fifty-eight homes on Meadow Lane were delivered on exactly that ground.
safe access floor levels sequential test Flood Zone 3Spend 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 Nottingham?
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 Nottingham.
Do you work on projects in Nottingham?
Yes. Meadow Lane and Carlton Road are both places we have worked, from fifty-eight homes delivered beside the Trent to three consents on a city campus. Our applications sit on the registers of more than 100 planning authorities across the UK, so you get people who know this city backed by a national record.
Is Nottingham City Council difficult to get planning permission from?
Protective in particular places rather than difficult in general. It defends family housing hard, controls houses in multiple occupation across the whole city, and expects caves, flood risk and drainage to be answered with evidence rather than assurances. What it rewards is an application that arrives complete, with the constraint someone else would have argued about already dealt with.
Can I turn a house in Nottingham into an HMO?
Rarely. A citywide Article 4 direction has required planning permission for a change from a family house to a small house in multiple occupation since 2012, and the council says permission is highly unlikely to be granted. Where an area already sits at or above the 10 per cent concentration the plan treats as significant, a further HMO will not usually be permitted. Extending or improving an HMO that is already lawful is a very different proposition.
Does Nottingham have a five year housing land supply?
Yes, and it changes the argument. The council reported 6.57 years of deliverable supply at 31 March 2025, a surplus of more than two thousand dwellings. So the tilted balance that a shortfall brings elsewhere is not available in the city, and a residential scheme has to succeed on the adopted policies rather than on the numbers. The position is restated each year, so it is worth checking again before an application goes in.
How much affordable housing does Nottingham City Council want?
It depends on the size of the scheme. On ten to fourteen homes, at least 10 per cent must be available for affordable home ownership. On fifteen homes or more, or a site of half a hectare or more, 20 per cent must be affordable, with at least 10 per cent of the homes for affordable home ownership. On sites providing student dwellings the council takes a commuted sum instead of on-site provision.
Are there caves under my site in Nottingham?
In the city centre, assume so until a survey says otherwise. More than 800 caves are recorded beneath the city, and inside the City Centre Caves Area, or within ten metres of a recorded cave elsewhere, the plan asks you to assume caves are present from the earliest stage. Any work below ground then needs a caves assessment, and it is far cheaper to know before the foundations are designed than after.
Does Nottingham charge Community Infrastructure Levy?
No. The city has no levy and secures developer contributions through Section 106 obligations instead, so the cost is negotiated scheme by scheme rather than charged per square metre. The council publishes an estimator covering affordable housing, open space, education, and employment and training, and top-slices three per cent of financial contributions for monitoring, up to a capped amount.
