Building work in Redbridge: area guide

Redbridge Council is the planning and building control authority for Redbridge, which covers IG1, IG2, IG3, IG4, IG5, IG6, IG7, IG8, E11, E18 and RM6 and takes in Ilford, Wanstead and Woodford. This is our area guide to building work in the borough; for whole-house refurbishment go to Home renovation in Redbridge.

Redbridge's housing, as the Council Tax list records it, is about 108,080 homes: 64% houses, 36% flats, with 27% pre-1919, 34% interwar and 38% built since 1945. VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for all 33 statistical areas in Redbridge. Counts rounded by the VOA.

Planning and building control in Redbridge

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

• Redbridge Council says the borough has 16 conservation areas. redbridge.gov.uk
• The Aldersbrook and Lake House Conservation Area Article 4 direction removes permitted development for enlargement or alteration of a dwellinghouse affecting its front, side or rear elevations. redbridge.gov.uk
• An Article 4 direction applies to land at 2 to 48 The Drive, Snaresbrook, London E18. redbridge.gov.uk
• The Redbridge Local Plan says there are over 200 statutory listed buildings, 200 locally listed buildings and 16 conservation areas in the borough. redbridge.gov.uk
• Redbridge's standard duty planner service for householder works is a 20 minute phone appointment costing £170 including VAT. redbridge.gov.uk
• Redbridge building control offers same day inspections if booked before 10am, a free pre-application advice service and completion certificates issued in-house. redbridge.gov.uk
• Redbridge says there are usually two types of building regulations application, full plans and building notice. redbridge.gov.uk
• Redbridge says it makes a decision on a full plans building regulations application within 5 to 8 weeks. redbridge.gov.uk
• Redbridge Local Plan policy on basement development supports schemes that do not comprise more than one storey or sit under an existing basement. redbridge.gov.uk

64% of Redbridge'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 36% that are flats have no householder permitted development, so their extensions and most external changes need planning permission from Redbridge Council. Taking out a wall or a chimney breast is building regulations work, not planning, unless the building is listed.

Reviewed jobs in Redbridge

Our MyBuilder profile holds 2 verified reviews from jobs in Redbridge. The job titles are the customers' own, as published:

• Install new kitchen, plumb appliances & re-tile walls, Wanstead, 27 Jul 2022 (5 out of 5)
• New en-suite, Woodford Green, 25 Mar 2018 (5 out of 5)

Read every review, including the ones from elsewhere, on our reviews page.

Redbridge sits between the Roding valley and Epping Forest, covering IG1 to IG8, E11, E18 and part of RM6. Ilford is dominated by long Edwardian terraces built in the years before the First World War, while Wanstead, Woodford and Barkingside are mostly interwar terraces and semis, with larger detached houses among them. The deciding local fact is garden depth: rear gardens here are unusually long for London, which changes which job is worth doing.

Edwardian terraces with room to extend start at the back wall

Ilford terraces are wider and longer than inner London equivalents, with a proper hallway, two reception rooms and a rear addition. The width makes a side return infill worthwhile, and the garden depth means building out rarely leaves too little outside space. Both are house extension work, and two storeys are more feasible than on a narrow terrace.

These solid brick houses sit on shallow foundations, so any wall removal is a load-bearing wall removal job: designed steel and correct temporary support first. We appoint a structural engineer, work to their calculations, and never produce them in-house. Party wall notices apply where beams bear into the shared wall or a chimney breast comes out of a shared stack.

Local designations decide whether long gardens get an outbuilding

Deep gardens make garden rooms, home offices and workshops a realistic alternative to a house extension job. Outbuildings often fall within permitted development, though the height limits are strict: commonly two and a half metres where the building sits within two metres of a boundary, and the structure must not cover more than half the land around the original house.

For year-round use, insulation, a damp proof membrane, proper electrical supply under Part P and adequate ventilation matter as much as indoors. Redbridge Council has designated conservation areas around Wanstead and parts of Woodford, and inside those boundaries side, two-storey and roof additions need planning permission and an outbuilding beside the house is no longer permitted development. On a long plot, drainage runs and foundation depth need thinking through, since a building at the far end still has to connect back.

Popular starting points in Redbridge: kitchen renovation in Redbridge, house extensions across Redbridge, builders in London and Staircase Renovation Cost.