Reports needed to demolish and rebuild a single house

The reports for demolish and rebuild house schemes are not the ones a householder extension needs, and the reason catches people out. Taking a whole dwelling down and putting a new one up is a full planning application for a new dwelling, not a householder application. That single classification decides the fee, the validation list, the biodiversity net gain position and the levy calculation. Work it out before you commission anything.

Whether demolition itself needs consent

Since August 2020 the demolition of a dwellinghouse, or of a building adjoining a dwellinghouse, has been excluded from the permitted development right in Part 11 of Schedule 2 to the General Permitted Development Order 2015. Demolishing a house is development in its own right and needs planning permission.

In practice this is rarely a separate application. The usual description of development reads along the lines of "demolition of existing dwelling and erection of a replacement dwelling", and the permission covers both operations. Where you are demolishing outbuildings or a detached garage rather than the house, Part 11 Class B may still apply, with a prior approval application covering the method of demolition and the restoration of the site.

Two situations change the answer completely. In a conservation area, demolition of an unlisted building is relevant demolition under section 196D of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, and carrying it out without permission is a criminal offence rather than a matter for the usual enforcement process. For a listed building, or a building within the curtilage of one, listed building consent is needed for demolition and there is no equivalent to a non-material amendment if the scheme changes.

Policy tests for a replacement dwelling

Outside settlement boundaries, replacement dwelling policies usually cap the increase in size relative to the original building, often expressed as a percentage of floorspace or volume, and they normally require the new dwelling to sit on or close to the footprint of the old one. Read the adopted local plan policy and the supporting text, because the measurement basis differs between authorities and the difference between gross internal floorspace and volume can be the whole argument.

Inside a settlement the tests are the ordinary ones: design, scale relative to neighbours, amenity impact, parking and trees. A replacement that is noticeably taller or deeper than what it replaces will be judged against the street, not against the old house.

Where the existing building has been abandoned or is derelict, check whether the residential use survives at all. An abandoned dwelling can lose its lawful use, which turns a replacement into a new dwelling in planning terms with all the policy consequences that follow.

Bat and nesting bird survey before demolition

Commission the ecology early. A preliminary roost assessment can be done at any time of year and is the trigger for everything else. Where it finds potential, emergence and re-entry surveys have to be carried out in the active season, roughly May to September, and a licence from Natural England is needed before any work that would affect a roost.

Surveys and any mitigation licence require a suitably licensed ecologist under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017. An AI-drafted report is a starting point for that professional and never a substitute for the survey or the licence. Link the first mention of the bat survey work into your programme at the earliest possible point, because missing the season costs a year.

Nesting birds are a separate offence with no survey window to plan around. Clearance and soft strip should avoid the breeding season, broadly March to August, or be preceded by a check by an ecologist immediately before work starts.

Biodiversity net gain on a replacement dwelling

This is where most replacement dwelling applications come unstuck.

The biodiversity gain condition under Schedule 7A to the Environment Act 2021 applies to planning permissions in England unless an exemption applies. Householder applications are exempt. A demolish-and-rebuild is not a householder application, so that exemption does not help you.

Two other exemptions might. The de minimis exemption applies where the development does not affect a priority habitat and affects less than 25 m² of on-site habitat, or less than 5 metres of on-site linear habitat such as a hedgerow. On a tight plot where the new footprint sits over the old one and the garden is untouched, that is achievable, and it is worth designing towards. The self-build and custom build exemption applies where the development consists exclusively of no more than nine self-build or custom build dwellings on a site of no more than 0.5 hectares.

If neither applies, you need a Biodiversity Net Gain Assessment with the statutory metric completed by a competent person and a biodiversity gain plan approved by the authority before development begins. Take the baseline before anything is cleared. The metric's degradation rules allow the authority to assess the baseline as it was before unauthorised clearance, so stripping the garden first makes the position worse rather than better.

Drainage, levels and tree constraints

A replacement dwelling usually changes the footprint, the roof area and the hard surfacing, so surface water has to be dealt with rather than assumed. Set out where roof and paved run-off goes, whether infiltration works on the ground conditions, and what happens to any existing connection you are abandoning. Councils increasingly condition this on single dwellings.

Levels drawings matter more than people expect. Where the new floor level sits above the old, the effect on neighbours' outlook and daylight changes, and an inspector will look at existing and proposed sections through the boundary rather than at elevations alone.

Trees on or adjacent to the plot need a survey to BS 5837:2012 where any is within influencing distance of demolition plant, the new foundations or the site access. Demolition traffic does more root damage than the new build does, and that is the part the arboricultural method statement has to control.

Waste and pre-redevelopment audit evidence

Demolition produces the largest single waste stream on a project of this size. A pre-demolition audit records what is in the building, what can be reused or recycled and what has to go to landfill, and several authorities now ask for one on major and on some minor schemes. Even where it is not required, a Pre-redevelopment Audit is the document that supports a circular economy or sustainability claim in the application.

Asbestos sits outside planning but on the same critical path. The Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 require a refurbishment and demolition survey before work starts on any building that might contain it, which in practice means anything built before 2000. Budget for it and get it done before the contractor prices the job.

Levy liability on the replacement floorspace

Community Infrastructure Levy is charged on net additional floorspace, and the floorspace of the demolished building can be deducted where it qualifies as an in-use building. The test in the CIL Regulations 2010 is that the building has been in lawful use for a continuous period of at least six months within a defined period before permission first permits development.

An empty house that has been standing unoccupied for years may fail that test, in which case the levy is charged on the whole of the new floorspace rather than the difference. Check it before you exchange on the site.

Self-build exemption is available for a person building their own home, and it has strict procedural requirements: claim it before starting work, submit the assumption of liability and the notice that work is starting in the right order, and provide the evidence within six months of completion. Miss a step and the exemption is lost, with no discretion to restore it.

For a sense of how the pack grows once you move beyond one plot, the notes on documents for a five dwelling village edge scheme cover the next scale up.

Enter your postcode on PlanScope to see which of the 66 reports a replacement dwelling on your site is likely to need. This is general guidance, not legal advice. Check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval. For specialist technical reports, qualified professional input may be required.