Where we work
Covering SE6 · SE23 · SE26 · Lewisham
Loft conversions with an en-suite, kitchen extensions, and bathrooms under the roof.
In the news
The rules and money around energy upgrades moved a long way in 2026. The short version, with the sources.
The government's Warm Homes Plan, published in January 2026, offers grants and low- and zero-interest loans for solar panels, batteries and heat pumps, with fully funded upgrades for low-income households.
The Future Homes Standard amends the Building Regulations from 24 March 2027, with a 12-month transition: new homes in England must generate renewable electricity on site — in most cases rooftop solar — and be built with low-carbon heating. It covers new homes, not extensions or refits, but it shows where the regulations are heading.
The Energy Saving Trust notes that installation costs less if scaffolding is already up for roof work. If you are planning a loft conversion or an extension, settle where panels, cables and a battery would go while the roof and the walls are open.
The houses here
Victorian and Edwardian houses on a lot of hills, which matters more than it sounds: levels, access and getting materials to the back of a sloping site all cost time.
What you need permission for
Forest Hill sits in Lewisham, and several of its streets are conservation areas, so permitted development rights are cut back and windows, doors and front boundaries come into the application. The hills matter too, and not just for the view: a level change across a rear garden pulls retaining work and often a party wall agreement into a job that looked like a simple extension. Lewisham has also made an Article 4 direction across most houses in the Forest Hill conservation area, so changes to windows, doors, the roof and front boundaries that can be seen from the street need planning permission there. Much of this area is covered by a conservation area, which removes permitted development rights that would apply elsewhere and brings windows, doors, roofs and front gardens into the application. Each conservation area has its own appraisal setting out the materials the council considers appropriate, and they differ — so the answer on one street is not the answer on the next.
Rules vary street by street, and none of this is advice about your particular house — we check yours before we quote, and we handle the applications.
Read the rules yourself
Photographs from our own finished jobs across South East London.
Check your postcode
We cover Forest Hill and all of London. We are Forest Hill builders first, with Forest Hill on our doorstep, but the answer is yes a good deal further out than that. Put a postcode in and see.
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