- Planning authority
- Huntingdonshire District Council
- Postcodes
- PE27
- Noon sun, 21 March
- About 38°
- Shadow from a 5 m eaves line
- About 6.5 m
- Planning plan
- Local Plan
- County
- Cambridgeshire
The local picture in St Ives
On many backland plots, access matters more than size. A long garden in St Ives may have no route to the road wide enough for cars, bins and emergency vehicles, and Huntingdonshire District Council will look closely at the effect of a new drive on the homes either side of it.
For homes in PE27 we look at access first: the width beside the house, visibility at the pavement, and whether a strip of land owned by someone else sits in the way. If access only works by joining with a neighbour, we’ll say so, and promoting the combined site may be the better route.
The next steps, locally
From first call to completion, a promotion in St Ives runs in clear stages: free appraisal, heads of terms, agreement, planning application, marketing and sale. You decide at the points that matter most, signing the agreement, setting the minimum price and approving the buyer. Timing depends on the council’s workload, any extra reports it asks for and the buyer’s solicitors, so we give a realistic range rather than a promise.
Free plot appraisal
We check your title plan, access, the surrounding gardens and the policies in the council’s Local Plan as a desktop exercise, then talk it through with you. If it looks viable, we visit. No cost and no obligation.
Heads of terms
We set out the deal in writing: the term, how our fee works, the cap on planning costs we can recover, the minimum price, the marketing approach and the cap on your reasonable legal fees that we cover.
Agreement signed
Your solicitor and ours turn the heads of terms into a promotion agreement. It’s usually protected by an entry on your title, and if your house is mortgaged, your lender is asked to consent early.
Marketing and sale
With permission granted, the plot is marketed as the agreement sets out. You see the offers and approve the buyer, and the plot can’t be sold below the minimum price without your written consent.
Worth checking early
- You can’t sell the plot to anyone else while the agreement runs, so the term length matters.
- On a single small plot, fixed costs and our fee take a bigger share of the sale price than on a larger site.
- You’ll live next to whatever is built, so the layout, windows and new boundary affect your house too.
Your questions, answered for St Ives
Can neighbours in St Ives combine gardens for a planning promotion?
Yes, and promotion often works better that way. Adjoining gardens can share one access and allow a better layout. Each owner keeps their house, signs an agreement setting out how proceeds are shared, and takes advice from their own solicitor. We can appraise the combined land as one site first.
Does a mortgage on my St Ives home stop a planning promotion?
No, but your lender has to be involved. The lender’s charge covers the garden, so it must agree to release the plot before it’s sold, and some lenders want to approve the promotion agreement too. We raise this at the start so it doesn’t delay a sale later.
Do I pay anything upfront for planning promotion in St Ives?
No. We fund the surveys, drawings and planning fees. Those costs are recovered from the sale proceeds, within a cap set in the heads of terms, only if a sale with planning happens. Your reasonable legal fees for the agreement are also covered up to an agreed cap.
Who decides a planning application for a garden plot in St Ives?
Huntingdonshire District Council decides it, using the council’s Local Plan and national policy in the NPPF. Nobody can promise the outcome. Under promotion we prepare and submit the application at our cost and deal with the council’s questions, but the decision is the council’s, and it can grant, refuse or ask for changes.
Other options in St Ives
- Sell part of your garden
- Sell subject to planning
- Garden plot option agreement
- Tandem and landlocked plots
- Joint venture on your garden plot
- Combine gardens with your neighbours