Mike Dade takes a look back at four potential plots he’s visited in recent years, and lets us know whether the hopeful self-builders and renovators managed to gain permission to go ahead with their projects

Mike Dade

PLOT WATCH: Mike Dade investigates

It’s always fascinating to look back at fledgling projects and see what’s happened. It’s fair to say that many never got off the ground, as the sites in question were either not sold or were snapped up by other interested parties.

An edge-of-village infill

WHO Matt Hudson

WHAT A garden infill site with potential to accommodate a new build home WHERE Kent

This is an inevitable part of plot hunting – especially for those who are taking a speculative approach that involves identifying potential, contacting owners and hoping to buy. But for those with a property already in their ownership, the key issue becomes planning permission. So, let’s take a look back at four very different readers’ projects and see how they got on. Back in the July 2017 edition of Build It, I looked at a possible plot within Matt Hudson’s large garden. The site was about 400 metres from a village edge and within an area of outstanding natural beauty, so on the face of it a bit of a long-shot. However, as luck would have it, the council did not have a five-year housing land supply, so their normally black and white rural housing policies couldn’t be applied with full force.

What happened

My conclusion, having viewed the site, was that the chances of success were evenly balanced, but an outline planning application would be a relatively inexpensive way of testing the waters.