Alex Jenkins

Like many houses, my semi-detached house has a slightly stepped rear wall; the only unusual thing is that the step is in the opposite direction from normal, but I don't think that makes any difference from a planning point of view. I would ideally like to build a full-width single-storey rear extension, but I am stymied by the fact that the slightly stepped rear wall means that the extension would need to meet the rules for a side extension (i.e. be no more than half the width of the house). Leaving aside questions of aesthetics and additional expense for the moment, would it be permissible to build a separate rear extension from each part of the rear wall, with a small gap between them? I would potentially then also make the extension from the furthest back part of the rear wall two-storeys. It's probably easiest to understand this using my sketch, which I have provided here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1l1601DnFdsjm3RjgrGscq_n5nReb5ZFX/view?usp=sharing

In the autumn statement in November, it was announced that the Government would consult on a new PD right to convert a house into two flats. However, I was surprised to see that this wasn’t included in the recent wide-ranging consultation on extending dwelling house PD rights. Does anyone have any ideas where this proposal has got to? If it isn’t consulted on fairly soon there may not be enough time for it to be implemented prior to the general election.