Front Garden Makeovers

The two rules that govern the front

Beyond those two, listed buildings, conservation areas, Article 4 directions and estate planning conditions can remove permitted development rights entirely. New-build estates in particular often carry conditions on boundary treatments and front garden surfacing, and those are enforceable regardless of the general rules above.

1. The drainage rule

In England, laying more than five square metres of hard surfacing between the front of the house and a highway needs planning permission — unless the surface is porous, or the water is directed to a permeable area within your own property. The rule is about where the water goes, not about the material. Permeable block paving, resin-bound on an open-graded base, and gravel all satisfy it. Impermeable concrete or tarmac draining onto the road does not, and needs an application.

2. The one-metre boundary limit

Walls, fences and gates adjoining a highway used by vehicles, or a footpath beside one, are limited to one metre under permitted development. That covers almost every front boundary. It is why front walls are low and why a two-metre fence across the front of a house will attract attention. The measurement is taken from the higher ground where levels differ, and anything on top — trellis, a railing — counts.

Adding parking: what is actually involved

1. Check whether you can cross the footway at all. Not every property can. A junction too close, a bus stop, a street tree, a pedestrian crossing, a sharp bend or inadequate visibility can all rule it out, and that decision rests with the highway authority.
2. Apply for a vehicle crossing. This is a separate application from planning. The highway authority assesses it and, if approved, the kerb and footway are reconstructed to carry vehicle loads. In most cases the work has to be done by the authority or an approved contractor, at the homeowner's cost.
3. Check the planning side. If the new surfacing exceeds five square metres and is not porous, that is a planning application too. Doing the drainage properly usually avoids it.
4. Check the depth you need. A parking space takes vehicle loading, so the excavation and sub-base are deeper than for a path. This is where the cost sits.
5. Check services. Water, gas and telecoms runs are common across front gardens, and a shallow service is a real constraint on excavation depth.
6. Design the drainage. Water must not run onto the highway or towards the house. Either the surface is permeable, or there is a channel and a soakaway within your boundary.

The sequence matters. People sometimes lay the drive first and then find the crossing is refused, which leaves a parking space you cannot legally drive into — mounting a kerb to reach it is not permitted and damages the footway.

Parking on a front garden without a dropped kerb is the single most expensive mistake in this area, because the surfacing is already down before the problem appears.

Parking and planting together

The default front garden makeover pattern is to pave the whole thing. It is understandable and it is usually a mistake — it makes the house look worse, it worsens drainage on the street, and it removes the only green the frontage had.

What works better is to pave only the footprint the car actually occupies, and plant the rest.

A typical car needs around 4.8m by 2.4m. Most front gardens are wider than that. The strip beside and in front of the space can be planted, and that strip does the aesthetic work for the whole frontage.

Other approaches worth considering:

• Wheel tracks. Two paved strips where the wheels run, with planting or gravel between. Reads as a garden, functions as a drive.
• A permeable surface with a planted margin. Keeps the drainage rule satisfied and softens the edges.
• Hedging rather than a wall along the front, under the one-metre line. Cheaper, greener, and it absorbs road noise and particulates.
• A single specimen tree or large shrub at the boundary, which does more visually than a row of small plants.
• Raised planters flanking the space, which define it without reducing the usable width.
• Climbers on the house front or a trellis, which green the frontage without using ground.

There is a practical argument too. Front gardens absorb rainfall; wholesale paving of a street shifts that water into the drainage system, and localised flooding on residential roads is frequently the cumulative result.

Choosing a surface at the front

The last row catches people. Block paving is not automatically permeable — permeable versions have wider joints filled with angular grit over a clean open-graded sub-base. Standard blocks on a conventional compacted sub-base shed water like any other hard surface, whatever the brochure implies.

Bins, meters and the things nobody plans for

• Bin storage. Three or four wheelie bins need somewhere, and if that somewhere is not designed they end up in front of the window. A screened recess or a bin store is worth planning in from the start.
• Meter boxes and stopcocks. These must stay accessible. A planted bed over a stopcock is a problem the first time it is needed.
• Inspection chambers. A manhole in the front garden must remain accessible, and a recessed tray cover lets it sit within block paving without looking wrong.
• Levels against the house. Front surfacing must finish well below the damp-proof course, with the fall away from the building. Raising a front path to meet the threshold is a reliable route to internal damp.
• The gate swing. A gate opening over the footway is not acceptable; it has to open inwards.
• Lighting and an outside socket. Far cheaper to run the cable while the ground is open than to dig it up later.

What it costs

These are the landscaping figures published across this site:

Our published driveway figure excludes excavation, which on a parking space is a substantial part of the work. The dropped kerb is a separate cost paid to the highway authority and is not included in any landscaping quote.

Frequently asked questions