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Start a conversationInfill and backland development, explained.
How a gap in the street or a plot behind the houses is judged.
Reviewed October 2026
The short answer
New homes in a gap or garden need planning permission. Inside a settlement, the Framework of August 2026 gives their benefits substantial weight; they should suit the street where visible, keep safe access, light, privacy and garden space, and meet its footprint test or its exception. Outside settlements, limited infilling can qualify.
In practice · The Woods, Napton
A side garden, judged as infill
In a village with no adopted boundary, infill is judged on the ground. The council's report described this plot as a single infill plot, made from the side garden of the client's own house.
The order of work
01ApplicationOne house, November 2018.
02RedesignFacade and parking, 2019.
03CommitteeParish objection, August 2019.
04GrantedEleven conditions, August 2019.
A three-bedroom house on the sloping side garden of a house on Vicarage Road, in Napton-on-the-Hill. With only a draft built-up area boundary, of limited weight, the officer judged whether the plot sat within the village's physical confines, and found it in a gap within a long-established ribbon of houses.
The job
- Site
- The Woods, one new house at Napton-on-the-Hill
- Role
- Architect and planning agent, from design to committee
- Consent
- Stratford-on-Avon ref 18/03425/FUL, August 2019
- Outcome
- Granted with 11 conditions; not built by October 2026
The house took months of redesign: its external design was reworked through the winter and redrawn in April 2019, and its parking revised in June after a survey, to answer the highway authority. A parish council objection took it to the planning committee, which granted it in August 2019.
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It was decided under the Framework of 2019. The garden test of August 2026 did not exist, so the officer worked from the local plan, which supports small-scale housing within a village's physical confines.
The same questions now sit in the Framework itself: whether a house suits the street scene, whether access, light, privacy and garden space work for everyone, and how much of the plot it takes.
Our role ran from the brief through committee to the working drawings and the conditions. The client is not named, by agreement.
The proof
Four more plots, four layouts.
Backland · granted
Hob Lane
Four homes consented in place of one bungalow on a backland plot at Burton Green. The officer's report found the layout was backland development, but that its harm was limited by the buildings around it and few public viewpoints; the committee approved it in October 2025.
Warwick ref W/24/0454 · View project
Rear gardens · appeal
Bedworth Road
Ten homes in outline on the deep rear gardens of houses on Bedworth Road, Bulkington. Refused in 2007 under the borough's windfall policy, the scheme was allowed at appeal in May 2008, when back gardens still counted as previously developed land.
Ref 011865 · View project
Replacement · granted
The Highfield
Seven flats in place of one large house in Kenilworth, beside the conservation area and a listed building. The officer's report found more building on the plot, but with a large garden kept, no harm to the area's character. Granted in August 2020.
Warwick ref W/19/2064 · View project
Street and rear pairs
Gospel Lane
Eight homes on a former bowling green at Acocks Green, Birmingham: three pairs facing the street and a fourth pair behind them, reached by a private drive, so the scheme fills the frontage and the land behind it. Approved in October 2024.
Ref 2023/00255/PA · View project
Every planning application we make in our own name is a matter of public record on a council register, and ours reach more than 100 planning authorities across the UK.
Infill plot architects →
01 · Where you stand
Check which test your plot faces
Start with where the plot is. Inside a settlement, such as a town or village, the Framework of August 2026 says development should be approved unless the benefits are substantially outweighed by adverse effects under its national policies. Outside settlements and the Green Belt, it lists the kinds that should be approved, one of them limited infilling within groups of houses; others need exceptional circumstances.
A village washed over by the Green Belt is not a settlement for this purpose: there a home needs a Green Belt exception, such as limited infilling in the village, judged on the ground, or very special circumstances. And if a plot inside a settlement is part of a garden, the Framework adds its own garden test.
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The garden test allows no more than twice the footprint of the existing buildings, counted as they stood on 17 August 2026, and keeps at least half the open curtilage, unless more fits without harm to the area's character, given the infrastructure and a sustainable location.
Then check access. Refuse should not usually be carried more than 30 metres to its store, with bins within 25 metres of the collection point, and a fire appliance should reach within 45 metres of every point inside a house, typically on a route 3.7 metres between kerbs.
02 · The plots
Four kinds of plot
The kind of plot sets the questions a council asks, and each one fails in its own way.
Plot 01
The gap in the street
A plot in a built-up frontage. Inside a settlement the Framework gives extra homes within existing plots substantial weight, and the design should respond to its context, such as the arrangement of plots, materials and features around it.
Where it fails: a house out of keeping with the street scene, or that ignores its context without good reason.
Plot 02
Behind the houses
Backland, reached by a drive beside or between homes. The street-scene test falls away where the house cannot be seen from the street, but access, daylight, sunlight, privacy and garden space should still work for residents and neighbours.
Where it fails: a drive that cannot take bins or a fire appliance, or windows that overlook the gardens around it.
Plot 03
Replacing one house
One house on a large plot replaced by several. Within settlements the Framework expects new homes to raise the area's density unless there is clear justification, and says character should be taken into account but not preclude development that makes the most of an area's potential.
Where it fails: a scheme that wastes the land, or misses the council's window distances and garden sizes.
Plot 04
Outside a settlement
Outside settlements, limited infilling within groups of houses can qualify, and in a Green Belt village limited infilling is not inappropriate. Neither phrase is defined; for Green Belt villages the Court of Appeal treats it as a judgment on the scheme's size, location and neighbours.
Where it fails: a plot behind the frontage rather than in a gap in it, which one inspector found was not infill.
03 · The test
Inside settlements, the garden test is central
Inside a settlement the Framework of August 2026 starts from approval, and names a substantial adverse impact on its garden policy as one way that can change. So the garden policy is central to a garden scheme: the street scene, access and amenity, and the footprint test. The Framework's other policies, such as design, density, heritage and flood risk, still apply.
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The footprint test counts the buildings as they stood on 17 August 2026, so outbuildings added later do not raise the limit. Its exception, for development that fits without harm to the area's overall character, given the infrastructure and a sustainable location, was added after consultation.
Local plan garden policies keep their weight unless they are materially inconsistent with the Framework's decision-making policies, when they get very limited weight. Solihull's backland guidance of 2021 asks that a house normally cover no more than a third of its plot, and that the house giving up land keep a rear garden at least 11 metres long.
Common questions
Infill and backland, answered
Can I build a house in my back garden?
Only with planning permission: the permitted development right for garden buildings excludes a dwelling.
More
Inside a settlement, the Framework of August 2026 gives extra homes within residential curtilages substantial weight if they pass its tests. The house should suit the street scene unless it cannot be seen from it; access, light, privacy and garden space should work for residents and neighbours; and it should stay within the footprint test unless more fits without harm to the area's character, given the infrastructure and a sustainable location. For small schemes, permission in principle can test the principle first.
What is backland development?
Building on land behind existing homes, usually former gardens, reached by a drive. There is no national definition.
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Solihull's guidance defines backland development as land behind the rear building line, often gardens, as well as garage courts. Nuneaton and Bedworth's guidance of 2026 describes new homes on land not visible from a public highway, usually former garden land. In Tate, the Court of Appeal recorded an inspector's finding that a house behind the dwellings on a lane was not infill, because it filled no gap in the frontage.
What counts as infill development?
There is no national definition of infill: it is a planning judgment on a scheme's size, location and relationship to the buildings around it.
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One inspector's test, noted by the Court of Appeal, is a gap in an otherwise developed frontage. In Green Belt villages, Solihull and Warwick District define limited infilling as no more than two homes in a small gap in a built-up frontage. Whether a site is in a village is judged on the ground: a plan boundary is relevant, but not necessarily decisive.
How much of my garden can I build on?
In a settlement, the Framework of August 2026 says no more than twice the existing buildings' footprint, keeping at least half the open curtilage.
More
Footprints count as at 17 August 2026. More fits only without harm to the area's character, given infrastructure and a sustainable location. Councils add figures: Solihull's backland guidance of 2021 says a house should not normally cover more than a third of its plot, and its garden should be at least its footprint. The house giving up land should keep a rear garden at least 11 metres long and at least half its garden or 200 square metres, whichever is smaller. Warwick, Stratford-on-Avon, Coventry and Nuneaton and Bedworth set minimum garden sizes.
Is garden land brownfield?
Not in built-up areas: the Framework excludes residential gardens there from previously developed land.
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Outside built-up areas, the Court of Appeal held in 2017 that the exclusion does not apply. Gardens were taken out of the brownfield definition on 9 June 2010. Before then, back gardens counted as previously developed land, which is how many backland schemes of the 2000s were argued.
Can I build in a garden in a Green Belt village?
Only as limited infilling in the village, which the Framework treats as not inappropriate in the Green Belt, or under another of its exceptions.
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The other exceptions include grey belt land where there is an evidenced need for homes. Locally, Solihull and Warwick District allow limited infilling only in named villages and only for up to two homes in a small gap in a built-up frontage. Whether a site is in the village, and whether a scheme is limited infilling, are judged on the ground; anything else inappropriate in the Green Belt needs very special circumstances.
Does biodiversity net gain apply to a garden plot?
Not where the site is 0.2 hectares or less and the scheme does not affect onsite priority habitat, for applications made from 6 August 2026.
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The self-build exemption was removed for applications made from that date. Above the threshold, the 10 per cent gain applies to a garden plot unless another exemption does, such as the one for small habitat losses.
Will I pay CIL on a new house in my garden?
Yes, where the council charges CIL on new homes: the exemption for under 100 square metres of new build does not cover new homes.
More
A self-builder building in a garden can claim an exemption after assuming liability, but the claim lapses if work starts before the council decides it. A missed commencement notice then brings a surcharge. Near us, Coventry and Nuneaton and Bedworth did not charge CIL when this page was checked; Solihull, Warwick, Stratford-on-Avon, Rugby and the West Northamptonshire areas did.
Sources
Where this page comes from
The main rules here come from the sources below.
Checked 15 October 2026
- Framework
- National Planning Policy Framework, L2 and L3
- Presumption
- Chapter 4, S3 to S5, and chapter 13, GB6 and GB7
- Glossary
- Annex B: settlement and previously developed land
- Garden rights
- Permitted Development Order 2015, Part 1, Class E
- Access
- Approved Document H and B: bins and fire access
- Net gain
- Biodiversity gain amendments 2026: the 0.2 hectare exemption
- CIL
- Community Infrastructure Levy Regulations 2010, regs 42 and 54A to 54B
- Local rules
- Solihull backland guidance 2021 and the local plans of the councils named
- Our record
- Council registers and decision documents for the five projects here
Written by
Rickett Architects
A RIBA Chartered practice, working since 1970, with more than 2,500 projects behind it. Our senior architects take projects from first survey through planning to completion, for private clients, developers and landowners across the Midlands and well beyond it.