Architect-Led Design and Build in Leeds

Yes. Our registered address is at White Rose Park in Leeds and we work across the city and its suburbs, as well as Wetherby, which falls to the same authority. The survey visit is booked before design work begins and construction visits are scheduled into the programme.

Leeds City Council, applying the Leeds local plan and the council's householder design guidance. The district is large and includes Wetherby and the outer suburbs. Householder applications are normally determined within eight weeks of validation.

Rarely in the conventional sense, because there is no rear garden to build into. The realistic options are a loft conversion where the roof structure and headroom allow, or reorganising the existing plan to make the space work harder. We will tell you honestly which of those your property can support.

The design questions are depth relative to the neighbour, the effect on their daylight and outlook, and where the existing drainage runs. Some rear extensions fall under permitted development, subject to limits, but where an Article 4 direction applies those rights may be removed. It is checked on your address.

It might. Leeds has used Article 4 directions in parts of the city, including areas with a high proportion of rented property, to remove specified permitted development rights. Where one applies, work that would be automatic elsewhere requires a planning application. The boundaries are drawn street by street.

On a terrace or semi, quite possibly. Excavating near a neighbour's foundations or building off a shared wall triggers statutory notice requirements. They take time to serve and resolve, so we flag them at design stage. Leaving it to the week before work starts is the usual cause of avoidable delay.

By treating deliveries, scaffolding, skip placement and neighbour impact as design decisions rather than site problems. On a constrained plot the sequence has to be thought through before anyone arrives, and because we design and build, that thinking happens in the same place as the drawings.

Yes, and on terraced property it is often the only way to add real space. The first questions are the existing roof structure, the available headroom once insulation and floor build-up are allowed for, and where the stair can land without ruining the floor below. We survey before promising a layout.

Yes. Office fit outs, retail units, restaurants and mixed use conversions. Commercial programmes are tighter than domestic ones, so the site visit schedule is denser and the decisions that hold up a fit out are brought forward rather than left to be discovered.

Yes. Planning and building regulations are separate approvals testing different things, and you usually need both. We produce the construction information, coordinate the structural design and submit to building control ourselves.

By pricing the build against a design we drew, and holding to the initial quote. Most price movement comes from a contractor pricing incomplete drawings and then charging for the gaps. When one practice does both, those gaps are ours to carry.

There are a lot of conservation areas across the Leeds district, so it is a real possibility depending on where you are. If your property is inside one, permitted development rights are reduced and materials, windows and roof form are scrutinised much more closely. We check the address before designing.