Improving the sustainability of your home

Garden Projects

As the climate warms, we are experiencing: 

• higher peaks in summer temperatures – increasing the risk of overheating in homes 
• more intense periods of rainfall – this can overload the sewer system and lead to localised floods.  

The good news is that, if you have any outdoor space – such as a garden or a driveway – you can help to combat both of these problems, while also making your property more attractive. 

There are two important ways you can do this: 

1. Increase tree and shrub cover to provide shading and cooling in summer – plants help to cool buildings, both by providing shade, and through evapotranspiration (releasing moisture into the air from their leaves, which has a cooling effect). Trees provide the most shading and cooling, but all plants will have some effect.  Conversely, man-made surfaces – including artificial grass – can get very hot and make overheating worse. 

2. Enable rainwater to soak into the ground rather than run off into the drains – this will reduce the risk of flooding in your neighbourhood.  You can do this by avoiding or removing impermeable surfaces (i.e., those which do not let water to pass through).

Making more space for plants can also provide wider benefits:  

• Access to green space has positive impacts on mental health 
• Supporting biodiversity, and providing food for birds and other wildlife 
• Improving the appearance and value of your property. 

What changes can I make in my own garden? 

If planning works to your outdoor space, consider the following options to provide summer cooling, reduce flood risk and support biodiversity:  

• Retaining and restoring front gardens – increasing plant coverage and removing or de-paving driveways, hard-standings or other artificial services. If paving is necessary, e.g., to provide access, keep the area to the minimum required, and use permeable materials or allow water to run-off into adjacent beds rather than into drains.   There is also helpful information in the government guidance on permeable surfacing for front gardens. 

• If you need to retain parking space – you can pave just the tracks of where the car’s wheels will go and fill the rest of the space with soft landscaping (soil, gravel, shingle, etc.) and low-growing plants.  If using gravel or shingle, please use a hard border to keep them contained, and avoid laying them on sloping surfaces – otherwise they will get washed onto paths or pavements, where they can cause a slip-hazard.  The RHS provides design advice on combining nature with car parking in front gardens.  Please note: This section does not cover the creation of a driveway / access from the street to a property. For further information on this, please consult the Council’s Residential Crossovers and Off-Street Parking Policy.  

• rewilding gardens – planting or sowing species which are good for pollinators; allowing areas of grass to grow longer to provide seeds, flowers and habitat; and installing features to support wildlife, such as bee hotels, bird boxes, bat bricks and hedgehog holes in garden fences. 

• Creating a rain garden – a shallow area of ground which receives run-off from roofs and other hard surfaces. Storm water fills the depression and then slowly soaks away. It is planted with plants that can stand waterlogging for up to 48 hours at a time. More drought-tolerant plants are used towards the edges.  The RHS website provides more information. 

• Creating space for wildlife – There are a number of actions which householders can take to provide more space for biodiversity outside our homes.  Some are simple measures anyone can do, others you should consider if you are planning landscape your garden.  You should particularly consider these if you are installing a loft conversion or external wall insulation, which can result in the loss of nesting places for swifts and other bird and bat species.  Actions you can take include: 

• Create space for swifts and other birds which nest in the eaves of buildings – the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) provide advice on how to retain or create nesting spaces within the eaves.  Specific advice is available for the following options: 

• installing ‘swift bricks’ within external walls 

• attaching swift nesting boxes, in a shaded location – Swift Conservation and Ealing Wildlife Group’s Saving Our Swifts project provides further advice on this 

• Incorporating space for wildlife when installing external wall insulation 

• To help other wild birds you can install bird boxes within your garden. 

• To help bats, you can make and install bat boxes within your garden or external walls of your home facing south. See more information about this at Bat Conservation Trust. To find out if you are located in an area populated by bats see The London Bat Group. 

• If you need to do works that would disturb breeding birds and their nests, such as demolition, vegetation removal or site clearance, this should be done outside the nesting season, which runs from 1st of March to 31st July inclusive.  

• You can adapt your garden to be hedgehog (and other wildlife) friendly by allowing gaps within your boundaries for them to move and find food and shelter in the neighbourhood. You can find out more about hedgehogs and how you can help them on Hedgehog Street 

• You could create a pond in your rear garden, if the space allows – this provides a haven for various types of plants, insects, birds and animals. If you plant a range of plant species around the edge of the pond, this will support an even greater diversity of wildlife. You can find more information about this on the RSPB website 

Do I need Permission? 

You do not need permission for making any of the changes described above to increase green space, biodiversity, natural drainage and permeability.   

Existing single-family dwelling houses do not need planning permission for a new or replacement driveway, of any size, which uses permeable (or porous) surfacing such as gravel, permeable concrete block paving or porous asphalt, or if the rainwater is directed to a lawn or border to drain naturally.  Planning permission for this is needed for all other types of dwelling, such as flats, maisonettes, houses created through conversions and homes of multiple occupation (HMOs), and for any other buildings. 

All buildings will need planning permission to lay a traditional, impermeable driveway which does not provide for the water to run to a permeable area, if the surface to be covered is more than five square metres.