A new plan, adopted this spring.
The South Worcestershire Development Plan Review was adopted in March 2026 by Worcester City, Malvern Hills and Wychavon together. It runs to 2041 and decides every application in the city today.
Read moreRIBA Chartered · Worcestershire
Architects in Worcester and Bromsgrove.
Affordable homes in delivery, village sites and conversions. Two councils, two rulebooks.
Selected work in Worcestershire
Affordable housing · Bromsgrove
Hopwood
Thirty-four homes for social rent, allowed at appeal in the Green Belt.
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Affordable housing · Malvern Hills
Hanley Swan
Fourteen affordable homes, allowed at appeal and now in delivery.
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Affordable housing · Worcester
Broomhall
Seventy affordable homes, taken from consent to a buildable technical design.
View projectPlanning in Worcester and Bromsgrove · 01
Know what the council will ask for.
Worcester decides on a plan adopted in March 2026, while Bromsgrove works to a 2017 plan with its successor at the first step. Six things shape most schemes here.
Five years of land, and the tilt is gone.
On adoption the councils could show a five year housing land supply, so the tilted balance that favours housing elsewhere no longer applies here. Thirteen miles north, Bromsgrove can show 2.24 years.
Read moreForty per cent, and the trigger just moved.
Forty per cent on greenfield and thirty on brownfield, biting at ten homes or half a hectare rather than fifteen. In designated rural areas it starts at five. Bromsgrove asks nothing below eleven.
Read moreA different council, short of land.
Bromsgrove decides on its 2017 District Plan and can show 2.24 years of housing land, not five. Its successor is at scoping until 4 September 2026, with a revised Green Belt assessment alongside.
Read moreA cathedral city that expects its evidence.
Worcester's historic core, its conservation areas and the riverside setting carry real weight, and a case officer expects the character of a place to be read before a design is proposed.
Read moreThe levy is changing behind the new plan.
The existing South Worcestershire charging schedules still apply, and new draft schedules were consulted in February 2026. The rate that counts is the one in force at determination. Bromsgrove charges no levy at all.
Read moreSouth Worcestershire and Bromsgrove policy, correct at August 2026. Both councils are mid-process: South Worcestershire opened a call for sites on 19 August and Bromsgrove's scoping consultation closes on 4 September, so we re-check both at the point of application.
The proof
Seventy homes, kept buildable.
Broomhall, Worcester
The outline for the wider urban extension was allowed at appeal in October 2022, and the consented parcel came to us in June 2025. Our job was to make seventy affordable homes for Bromford buildable: a fully coordinated technical design, drawn plot by plot, ready for a contractor to price and build.
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 Worcestershire councils have 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
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 developmentFor homeowners
Extensions, remodels and replacement houses, including the Green Belt rules that decide what a Bromsgrove village home is allowed to become, designed around how you live.
Private homesCommercial and mixed-use
Shops, offices, care schemes and change of use, from commercial architects who argue the case with the evidence the South Worcestershire councils expect to see.
Commercial workWhy Rickett · 03
Start a conversation Why clients come back.
Work with a team that is already delivering here.
Seventy affordable homes for Bromford in Worcester, taken from planning permission to a buildable technical design. Fourteen more at Hanley Swan, with conditions being discharged. Yours would not be our first Worcestershire scheme, or our first housing association.
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.
Conservation area Open countrysideKnow which rulebook you are in.
Worcester, Malvern Hills and Wychavon share a plan adopted in March 2026 with a five year land supply behind it, so schemes there are won on plan compliance. Bromsgrove works to a 2017 plan, mostly in the Green Belt, with its successor at the first step. The same site question gets a different answer either side of that line.
affordable housing housing mix village scale limits countryside restraintSpend 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 Worcester or Bromsgrove?
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 Worcester and Bromsgrove.
Do you work on projects in Worcester and Bromsgrove?
Yes, and the biggest is on the drawing boards now. Seventy affordable homes for Bromford at Broomhall in Worcester, taken from planning permission to a fully coordinated technical design. Fourteen affordable homes at Picken End, Hanley Swan, allowed at appeal in September 2025 on our drawings and now having their conditions discharged. Thirty-four homes for social rent at Hopwood in Bromsgrove, allowed at appeal on a Green Belt site and now being built for Bromford. Applications in our name sit on the registers of more than 100 planning authorities across the UK, and Worcestershire councils have been receiving them since 2002.
Are Worcester and Bromsgrove under the same council?
No, and the difference decides how a site is argued. Worcester shares the South Worcestershire Development Plan Review with Malvern Hills and Wychavon, adopted in March 2026, so schemes there are judged against a brand new plan. Bromsgrove is its own district, working to a plan adopted in 2017 while its successor is only at the first step. The same site question can get a different answer either side of that boundary, so establish which rulebook you are in before anything is drawn. Both are taking site suggestions right now: South Worcestershire opened a call for sites on 19 August 2026 and Bromsgrove's scoping consultation closes on 4 September.
Does Worcester have a five year housing land supply?
Yes. On adopting the new plan in March 2026 the South Worcestershire councils could show a five year supply, and they have said plainly that the tilted balance which favours approving housing no longer applies. That changes the winning argument: speculative sites lose their lever, and schemes succeed by working with the plan's allocations and policies rather than around them. Bromsgrove is the opposite case, at 2.24 years against a requirement that already carries a twenty per cent buffer. The position is restated every year, so check it before relying on it.
How much affordable housing does a scheme in Worcester have to provide?
Forty per cent on greenfield and thirty per cent on brownfield, on sites of ten or more homes or half a hectare or more, provided on site. Inside designated rural areas the trigger drops to five homes, and below five a contribution worth twenty per cent of the units is sought instead. The tenure split is set at seventy per cent social rented and thirty per cent affordable home ownership unless viability or evidenced local need justifies otherwise. The previous plan set the threshold at fifteen homes and that figure is still in circulation, so take it from the adopted policy rather than a summary. Across the boundary, Bromsgrove asks nothing at all below eleven homes.
What is happening with Bromsgrove's local plan?
It is starting again, and the window to influence it is open now. Bromsgrove published its notice of intention to begin a new local plan in June 2026 under the government's new plan-making system, and the scoping consultation runs to 4 September 2026, alongside a revised Green Belt assessment. The pressure behind it is a housing land supply of 2.24 years, calculated at April 2025 against a five year requirement that already carries a twenty per cent buffer. Ninety per cent of the district is Green Belt, so which land comes out of it in the new plan will decide the district's development map for a generation. Until then, the 2017 plan decides applications.
What does the Community Infrastructure Levy cost in Worcester?
The number is in transition. The existing South Worcestershire charging schedules still apply, and new draft schedules were consulted in February 2026 to sit behind the new plan. The rate charged is the one in force when the application is determined, not when it is submitted, so on any scheme now being designed the levy should be confirmed with the council before the site is priced rather than taken from a table that may be superseded. Bromsgrove charges no levy at all and works through section 106, with a published monitoring fee on each obligation.
What does a delivery architect do on an affordable housing scheme?
A consented scheme is not yet a buildable one. On a seventy home affordable scheme in Worcester our appointment began after planning: general arrangement drawings plot by plot, construction details, and the coordination of engineers and consultants into one package a contractor can price and build. The consent creates the value; the technical design gets it built. That is the work housing associations bring us, and it is judged in tenders and on site rather than at committee.
