One plan decides, and its replacement is out.
The Warwick District Local Plan 2011 to 2029 decides every application in both towns. The joint plan that replaces its strategic policies reached publication stage in July 2026.
Read moreRIBA Chartered · Warwickshire
Architects in Warwick and Kenilworth.
Conservation areas, Green Belt edges and back-land plots. One council decides them all.
Selected work in Warwick and Kenilworth
Conservation area · Warwick
Cannings Farm
A farmhouse and its redundant barn, consented as one home.
View project
Conservation area · Kenilworth
The Highfield
Seven apartments consented on a plot pinched by two protected trees.
View project
Back-land site · Burton Green
Hob Lane
One bungalow replaced by four homes, granted at committee.
View projectPlanning in Warwick District · 01
Know what the council will ask for.
Warwick and Kenilworth are one council and one adopted plan, with the joint plan that replaces its strategic policies now at publication stage. Six things shape most schemes in both towns.
The balance is tilted your way.
The council's own paper puts the district at 1.96 years of deliverable housing land supply, against the five years national policy asks for.
Read moreForty per cent, and two ways to trigger it.
Policy H2 bites at eleven dwellings or at 1,000 square metres of floorspace, whichever comes first. The second limb catches smaller schemes.
Read moreThe building is presumed to stay.
Warwick and Kenilworth each have their own conservation area and appraisal, and Policy HE2 presumes in favour of keeping the unlisted buildings that earn their place.
Read moreNational policy decides it here.
Policy DS18 is two sentences long and hands the whole question to the national framework. Kenilworth and the villages west of it sit against the Green Belt.
Read moreThe rate doubles between the two towns.
Warwick sits in the district's lowest residential CIL zone and Kenilworth in one twice the rate, five miles apart.
Read moreWarwick District Council policy, correct at August 2026. The South Warwickshire Local Plan is at publication stage and the housing land position is restated every year, so we re-check them at the point of application.
The proof
Seventeen consented sites in two towns.
Warwick District Council
Sixteen years of consents on this ground, from a replacement garage to seven apartments inside the Kenilworth Conservation Area, and a back-land plot won at committee in October 2025.
See the work
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, and Warwick District has been receiving applications in our name since 2002. 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
Back-land plots, village sites and small apartment schemes, 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 barn conversions, including the conservation area rules that decide what a Warwick or Kenilworth house is allowed to become, designed around how you live.
Private homesCommercial and mixed-use
Shops, offices, community buildings and change of use, from commercial architects who argue the case with the evidence Warwick District expects to see.
Commercial workWhy Rickett · 03
Start a conversation Why clients come back.
Work with a team that has already built here.
Four homes consented at committee on a back-land plot at Burton Green. Seven apartments consented on a pinched conservation plot in Kenilworth. Yours would not be our first Warwick District conservation area, or our first protected tree.
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.
Green Belt Conservation areaBuild on the awkward half of a plot.
The land left in these two towns sits behind existing frontages or up against the Green Belt, so access, trees and the neighbours decide the layout long before elevations do. Four homes at Hob Lane were consented on exactly that ground.
shared access protected trees committee Green BeltSpend 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 Warwick or Kenilworth?
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 Warwick and Kenilworth.
Do you work on projects in Warwick and Kenilworth?
Yes. Norton Lindsey, Kenilworth and Burton Green are all places the practice has worked, from a farmhouse and its redundant barn consented as one home to four new houses won at planning committee in October 2025. Applications in our name have been going to Warwick District Council since 2002, and they sit on the registers of more than 100 planning authorities across the UK.
Does Warwick District Council have a five year housing land supply?
No, and it is a long way short. The council's own paper put the district at 1.96 years of deliverable supply at 1 April 2025, against a five year requirement of 5,696 dwellings and an identified supply of 2,230. A shortfall on that scale engages the national presumption in favour of sustainable development, which tilts the balance towards well-made housing proposals in suitable locations. It is a tilt, not a waiver: heritage, highway safety and efficient use of land still decide applications here.
How much affordable housing does a scheme in Warwick or Kenilworth have to provide?
Forty per cent, and the trigger has two limbs. Policy H2 says residential development on sites of 11 or more dwellings, or where the combined gross floor space is more than 1,000 square metres, will not be permitted unless 40 per cent affordable housing is provided. The floorspace limb catches schemes with fewer than eleven homes, so a small number of large apartments can cross the line. Amount, form, location and delivery are negotiated at application, and viability is a legitimate part of that negotiation.
What does the Community Infrastructure Levy cost in Warwick and Kenilworth?
It roughly doubles between the two towns. On the schedule that took effect on 1 January 2026 the residential rate is £92.41 per square metre in Zone A, which covers Warwick, and £184.82 in Zone C, which is Kenilworth. The towns are five miles apart, so a scheme moved across that boundary carries a materially different levy. Rates are indexed each year to the RICS tender price index and the rate that applies is the one in force when the application is determined, so check the live schedule before a price is agreed on a site.
Can I build on Green Belt land near Kenilworth?
Sometimes, and the local plan adds almost nothing to the national test. Policy DS18 is two sentences: the extent of the Green Belt is defined on the Policies Map, and the council will apply national planning policy to proposals within it. So a Green Belt case here is won or lost on the national framework, on whether the development is inappropriate and, if it is, whether very special circumstances outweigh the harm. Other policies expand the exceptions, including limited village infill in the Green Belt and extensions to dwellings in the open countryside.
My house is in the Warwick or Kenilworth conservation area. What changes?
The starting position stops being the national permitted development rights. Both towns have their own conservation area with a published appraisal, and Policy HE2 sets a presumption in favour of retaining unlisted buildings that make a positive contribution. Consent to demolish one is only granted where the replacement design can show it will preserve or enhance the area. Article 4 directions are made area by area rather than district-wide, so check the designation, any listing and any direction before a design is fixed.
Can I get planning permission for a back-land plot?
It is one of the harder cases and it is regularly won. A back-land scheme has to answer access, parking, drainage, trees and the effect on the neighbours who surround it, and objection is close to guaranteed, which often takes the decision to committee rather than an officer. At Hob Lane in Burton Green a bungalow and its grounds became four detached family homes, with the parish council objecting and the officer recommendation upheld at committee in October 2025.
