Planning Changes – Funding an Extension or Refurbishment

Sweeping planning reforms have been proposed in England on the back of the Prime Minister’s £5bn pledge to ‘build, build, build’ to help reduce the impact of Covid on the economy. The government’s proposals include reducing the number of planning cases that are overturned at appeal by creating a ‘clearer, rules-based system’.

While these proposals are out for consultation, some planning measures come into effect next month with home owners allowed to build above their homes without going through the normal planning process. Developers will also be able to build above, or demolish, or rebuild, vacant premises, or change the use of town centre shops, without planning permission.

There is a variety of funding available for homeowners and developers intending to take advantage of the changes. Homeowners who need cash to fund their building work can either take a further advance from their existing lender or remortgage their existing loan, extending it to raise money to fund the work.

A further advance can make sense if the rate is competitive and/or you have a very good existing mortgage deal that you wish to hang onto. However, if you need to remortgage anyway because you are coming to the end of a deal, it may be worth consolidating all the lending onto one loan. The advantage of this is that you can shop around and compare rates from lenders across the market – using a whole-of-market broker such as AWS Financial Services to do this for you makes life easier and ensures you get the right deal for your circumstances.

Likewise, we can help developers looking for funding to refurbish or rebuild a residential or commercial property as we have good relationships with specialist development lenders. Development finance covers a range of products – we can help identify the most competitive funding for your project, so please get in touch for more information.