Backland development in Gerrards Cross

If your house in Gerrards Cross has a long back garden, a wide side plot or a row of garages behind it, there may be space for a new home. Backland Development gives you two ways to use that land. You can sell or partner on the plot and carry on living in your house, or you can keep it and have us design, get planning for and build a new home there.

Every enquiry from Gerrards Cross and nearby places such as Chalfont St Peter, Rickmansworth and Amersham starts the same way: a free garden plot appraisal with no obligation. We look at the plot from a desk, talk it through with you and arrange a visit if it looks viable. Planning decisions rest with Buckinghamshire Council, so we never promise an outcome.

Planning authority
Buckinghamshire Council
Postcodes
SL9
Noon sun, 21 March
About 38°
Noon sun, 21 December
About 15°
Planning plan
Local Plan
County
Buckinghamshire

The kinds of plot we look at in Gerrards Cross

The classic garden plot is a long back garden with enough width beside the house for a driveway. If you have one in Gerrards Cross, that’s a good starting point, but it isn’t the only kind we consider. Corner plots and wide side gardens can work well because they often face a road already. Garage courts and yards behind houses may have access in place. Even land with no obvious way in can sometimes work, if a neighbour’s garden or a shared drive can provide one.

Planning and light in Gerrards Cross

If your plot is in Gerrards Cross, the application will normally go to Buckinghamshire Council, which judges it against its Local Plan and the council’s design guide or supplementary planning document. Those documents set local expectations on design, parking, garden sizes and how new homes should relate to the street, while the NPPF sets the wider national framework. For an address in SL9 or nearby, the exact postcode also tells us which flood maps, sewer records and tree orders to check. Where it helps, we ask the council for pre-application advice before anything is drawn in detail.

Section showing noon sun and shadows in Gerrards Cross: about 38 degrees on 21 March and 15 degrees on 21 December21 m21 Mar, noon: sun 38°, shadow 6.3 m21 Dec, noon: sun 15°, shadow 18.7 mExistingNew home
This section is worked out for the latitude of Gerrards Cross: around 38° of sun at midday in late March and about 15° at midwinter. It shows why the gap between your house and a new home behind it is about light as well as privacy. Garden assumed to face north.

What we can do in Gerrards Cross

Sell or partner

Design and build

By plot type

What happens next

Getting a first view of your plot in Gerrards Cross costs nothing. Send us the address through the form, or give us a call, and we’ll check access, size, title and the planning picture from our desk. If it looks promising, we’ll visit, explain the routes that could work and put the main terms in writing before you’re asked to decide anything.

Questions about garden plots in Gerrards Cross

How do you stop a new home in Gerrards Cross overshadowing the neighbours?

By testing the layout against the sun and the council’s guidance. At midday on 21 March the sun in Gerrards Cross is about 38° up, so a 5 m eaves line casts a shadow of roughly 6.3 m; in December it is far lower. Spacing, roof height, orientation and single-storey designs all help keep light where it belongs.

What happens if planning is refused for a plot in Gerrards Cross?

If you agreed a sale subject to planning, the contract doesn’t complete and you keep your land. We’ll then look at the reasons Buckinghamshire Council gave and tell you honestly whether a revised application, an appeal or stopping is the sensible choice. Nothing about your own house changes.

How long does a garden plot deal in Gerrards Cross usually take?

It depends on the route. A sale of a plot that already has planning moves at the pace of the solicitors and your lender. Routes that need planning usually take many months, because of surveys, design, the council’s decision period and any amendments. Design and build usually takes well over a year in total.

Is there a charge for assessing my plot in Gerrards Cross?

No. The garden plot appraisal is free and carries no obligation. We do a desktop check of access, size, title and the planning picture, talk it through with you and arrange a site visit if it looks viable. You can stop at any point without owing anything.

Nearby

Find out what your garden could become

Free garden plot appraisal. No cost, no obligation, and a straight answer if it won’t work.