Building work in Kingston upon Thames: area guide

Kingston Council is the planning and building control authority for Kingston upon Thames, which covers KT1, KT2, KT3, KT5, KT6 and KT9 and takes in Surbiton and New Malden. This is our area guide to building work in the borough; for whole-house refurbishment go to Home renovation in Kingston upon Thames.

Kingston upon Thames has about 70,440 homes on the Council Tax list: 21% pre-1919, 34% interwar and 45% post-war, with flats making up 42% and houses 59%. VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for all 20 statistical areas in Kingston upon Thames. Counts rounded by the VOA.

Planning and building control in Kingston upon Thames

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

• Kingston upon Thames has 26 conservation areas, covering about 9.4% of the borough and containing around 10000 postal addresses. kingston.gov.uk
• Kingston made a non-immediate Article 4 Direction on 30 July 2021 removing permitted development rights for change of use from class E to C3 residential. kingston.gov.uk
• Kingston's class E to residential Article 4 Direction was confirmed on 18 July 2022 and came into force on 31 July 2022. kingston.gov.uk
• Kingston says it is a criminal offence to carry out works to a listed building which require listed building consent. kingston.gov.uk
• Kingston has 19 Local Areas of Special Character (LASC). kingston.gov.uk
• Kingston Council's building control team offers full plans and building notice applications, and says the cost is the same whichever route you choose. kingston.gov.uk
• Once a building notice application is submitted to Kingston, building work can start within 48 hours. kingston.gov.uk
• Kingston has up to 5 weeks to approve full plans, extended to 8 weeks if revisions or more information are needed. kingston.gov.uk
• Kingston's Residential Design SPD requires proposals for subterranean development to be accompanied by a Construction Method Statement. kingston.gov.uk

59% of Kingston upon Thames' 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 42% that are flats have no householder permitted development, so their extensions and most external changes need planning permission from Kingston Council. Taking out a wall or a chimney breast is building regulations work, not planning, unless the building is listed.

Kingston upon Thames sits on the river at the south western edge of London, covering KT1, KT2, KT3, KT5, KT6 and KT9. Surbiton and the older parts of Kingston are known for substantial Victorian and Edwardian villas, many long since divided into flats, while New Malden and Berrylands add interwar semis and 1930s family houses. The river is close enough that ground conditions and water levels genuinely shape how a house extension foundation or basement gets designed.

Villas, roof space and reinstated houses: which job comes first

The tall Victorian villas around Surbiton have real volume in the roof, with steep pitches and generous ridge heights, and the chimney stacks running up through that space are often why a breast below cannot simply come out: whatever is left above has to be carried, so any chimney breast removal is designed first, with party wall duties where the stack is shared.

Many of these houses were split into flats decades ago, and reinstating one as a single family home is a recurring request: removing added partitions, rationalising duplicated kitchens and bathrooms, resolving drainage back to one sensible arrangement, and often a full rewire. That spans every room, so it is home renovation, with openings designed by a structural engineer and built to their drawings.

River proximity and ground conditions set the foundation

Close to the Thames the ground is typically river terrace gravel over clay, and the water table can sit high. Deeper foundations, basement or lower ground floor works and drainage runs all behave differently here than on higher ground a mile inland, and a trench that stands open overnight will often tell you so. A house extension job near the river is priced from the foundation design.

The structural engineer specifies the foundation and any waterproofing design, and we build to it, with the excavation inspected by Kingston Council building control before concrete is placed. Where a property falls within a flood zone, floor levels, low-level materials and socket heights are resolved at design stage. Detailing them costs very little, correcting them later a great deal.

Popular starting points in Kingston upon Thames: kitchen renovation in Kingston upon Thames, house extensions across Kingston upon Thames, builders in London and How to Choose a Builder.