Building work in Havering: area guide

Havering Council is the planning and building control authority for Havering, which covers RM1, RM2, RM3, RM5, RM7, RM11, RM12, RM13 and RM14 and takes in Romford and Hornchurch. This is our area guide to building work in the borough; for whole-house refurbishment go to Home renovation in Havering.

Havering has about 108,680 homes on the Council Tax list: 5% pre-1919, 36% interwar and 59% post-war, with flats making up 26% and houses 74%. VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for all 30 statistical areas in Havering. Counts rounded by the VOA.

Planning and building control in Havering

What Havering Council publishes about building work in the borough, with each point linked to the council page it comes from:

• There are 11 designated conservation areas in Havering. havering.gov.uk
• An Article 4 Direction in the Cranham Conservation Area means planning permission is required for gates, walls, fences or other means of enclosure. havering.gov.uk
• An Article 4 Direction in the Havering-atte-Bower Conservation Area means planning permission is required for satellite dishes. havering.gov.uk
• Havering's written pre-application advice for householder extensions or alterations costs £229, with advice aimed within 20 working days of request. havering.gov.uk
• Havering Council runs its own building control service, which it describes as independent, impartial and publicly accountable and carried out by a team of experienced surveyors. havering.gov.uk
• Havering's building regulation charges are the same for corresponding work whether it goes in as a full plans, building notice, regularisation or reversion application. havering.gov.uk
• Havering says a building notice is most suitable for minor projects like small extensions or changes inside your home. havering.gov.uk

74% of Havering's homes are houses, which keep householder permitted development: a single-storey rear extension within the size limits can usually go ahead without an application, in a conservation area too unless an Article 4 direction removes it. The 26% that are flats have no householder permitted development, so their extensions and most external changes need planning permission from Havering Council. Check Havering Council's conservation area and Article 4 lists for the street before anything is drawn. Taking out a wall or a chimney breast is building regulations work, not planning, unless the building is listed.

Havering is the far east of London and the housing shows it: wide streets, deep plots, and a stock made up largely of 1930s semis, postwar estate housing and, at Emerson Park and around Upminster, some of the largest detached homes in the capital. Romford, Hornchurch, Rainham and Upminster across RM1, RM2, RM3, RM5, RM7, RM11, RM12, RM13 and RM14 have space inner London lacks, so the plot and the age of the services decide the job.

Interwar and postwar houses reaching their limits, by job

Much of the borough went up in two waves, the 1930s and then the 1950s and 1960s, to repeating house types, and both have outlived their original services. A tired kitchen or bathroom alone is a room job. When the list adds a rewire under Part P, heating replacement, and window and insulation upgrades under Part L, it is a home renovation job, walls opened once.

The flat-roofed rear and side additions of the 1960s and 1970s recur too. Many have failed coverings, no meaningful insulation and foundations designed for a much lighter structure. Replacing one is a house extension job: new foundations to a depth the structural engineer sets, a warm roof, and building control inspecting the excavation before concrete is poured.

Bigger homes at Emerson Park and Upminster start at the plot

The detached houses in RM11 and RM14 sit on plots wide enough for schemes impossible further west: two-storey side additions, wraparounds turning the corner from side to rear, annexes and substantial garage conversions. The permitted development allowance for a single-storey rear addition on a detached house is commonly four metres. Opening the old rear wall into it is an RSJ installation, steel sized by the engineer.

Havering Council has designated conservation areas in several older centres, and inside those the permitted development route narrows to a modest single-storey rear addition. Elsewhere conditions are as good as London gets: a skip on the drive, materials stored securely on site, rear access down the side of the house, and room for trades to work in parallel rather than queueing for space.

Popular starting points in Havering: kitchen renovation in Havering, house extensions across Havering, builders in London and Renovations That Add Value.