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Northwood HA6 · Flat refurbishment

Flat refurbishment in Northwood

Flats over shops, 1960s blocks and The Glen’s maisonettes

Northwood’s flats come in distinct kinds: homes above the Green Lane parades, blocks such as Greenhill Court, newer replacement blocks, converted houses, and the maisonettes of The Glen, an estate with its own residents’ company. Who must agree to your plans, and what can change, differs between them, so this page takes each in turn and ends with Hillingdon’s rules on dividing and joining homes.

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Flat refurbishment in Northwood at a glance

The first question for a Northwood flat is who else must agree, and the answer depends on the building. At The Glen, the council’s 2008 appraisal records that the residents bought the freehold in 1995 and set up The Glen Residents Association Ltd, a private company whose elected chairman and board of six decide residents’ applications for internal or external alterations. For a flat in a block or above a shop that the 2019 town centre appraisal describes, read its comments on that building before touching windows or balconies. Where a house is to be divided, or flats joined, Hillingdon’s housing policies apply as well as any lease.

Hillingdon: The Glen, Northwood Conservation Area Appraisal, March 2008 (PDF) · Hillingdon: Northwood Town Centre, Green Lane Conservation Area Appraisal, adopted September 2019 (PDF) · Hillingdon Local Plan Part 2: Development Management Policies, adopted 16 January 2020 (PDF) · LEASE: alterations and home improvements

For the whole area, including conservation areas, permissions and working hours, read our Northwood renovation guide.

Approved guide prices

What does a flat refurbishment cost in Northwood?

A flat refurbishment in Northwood runs £900–£1,700/sqm excluding VAT, and a full two-bedroom refurbishment typically lands between £60,000 and £110,000. Most programmes take 16–32 weeks on site. A written scope and site assessment are needed before any project price can be fixed.

Scope of workGuide rateTypical total
Full flat refurbishment (2-bed)£900–£1,700/sqm£60,000–£110,000
Typical programme16–32 weeks on site

Guide rates exclude VAT and are set by depth of work, not by postcode. Compare scopes in our London refurbishment cost-per-square-metre guide or try the cost calculator.

The buildings

Northwood’s flats in the council’s appraisals

Hillingdon’s appraisals describe some of Northwood’s flats building by building, in the town centre and at The Glen. They date from 2008 and 2019, so check what has changed since on your own block.

On Green Lane’s north side, Rowland Place, of the 1960s, nods to the neo-Georgian, with shops below and apartments on the two floors above, some first-floor apartments with balconies onto the canopy; the appraisal singles it out for particularly harmful UPVC windows. The shopping parades use sash windows on their upper floors, and the appraisal says rear elevations can contribute to the area’s character: the rear of Clive Parade, for example, is prominent along Maxwell Road and designed to be seen, and the rear of 39-51 Green Lane, seen from Oaklands Gate, has pitched roofs with a pleasing rhythm.

Hillingdon: Northwood Town Centre, Green Lane Conservation Area Appraisal, adopted September 2019 (PDF)

Greenhill Court, a large L-shaped block wrapping the west corner of Green Lane and Dene Road, was built in the 1960s or early 1970s on a plot that once held a single detached house, in brown brick with red brick dressings, small-paned sashes and pedimented entrance porches. More recently, modern blocks have replaced earlier buildings: on Maxwell Road, Pinnacle apartments, in a pseudo-Edwardian style, took the place of a 1960s public house built in connection with Clive Parade, and on Murray Road Copper Beech Court is a three-storey replacement block filling the full width of its site.

Hillingdon: Northwood Town Centre, Green Lane Conservation Area Appraisal, adopted September 2019 (PDF)

The Glen was built on the site of three large detached houses, The Glen, The Spinney and The Firs, after Ruislip Northwood Urban District Council granted planning permission on 27 March 1958 for a development described as “52 flats with 52 lock up garages”. In each symmetrical block, the four entrances are hidden in a single porch on each flank wall. The dining room and principal bedroom front a balcony or loggia facing a shared garden court with no garden boundaries, the living room sits in the L-shaped hipped projection, and the rear elevations have small brick bin stores.

Hillingdon: The Glen, Northwood Conservation Area Appraisal, March 2008 (PDF)

Permissions and local rules

Consents and rules for a Northwood flat

The Glen’s own terms

What did The Glen’s 1996 deed change?

The Glen’s maisonettes carry private terms, separate from council rules. As the council’s March 2008 appraisal records them, a Deed of Variation dated 18 March 1996, made after the residents bought the freehold, introduced a quarterly management charge, limited garage sales to people living on the estate, prohibited poles, masts or wires “deemed of unsightly appearance” and totally prohibited satellite dishes. The appraisal cannot show whether those clauses read the same today, so read your own lease and deed and ask the residents’ company before any design work.

Hillingdon: The Glen, Northwood Conservation Area Appraisal, March 2008 (PDF) · LEASE: alterations and home improvements

The Glen’s management plan

How much can change outside a Glen maisonette?

Very little, on the council’s March 2008 management plan. It says there is unlikely to be scope for anything other than very minor external alterations, and that most satellite dishes would need planning permission, which would be unlikely to be granted. Solar panels, it says, will not be granted permission if sited prominently, though that policy can be reviewed as more discreet products appear. It adds that the flank-wall chimneys should not be removed, and that it is important that replacement brickwork and roof tiles match, down to valley and bonnet-hip tiles, herringbone patterning and brick-on-edge parapets.

Hillingdon: The Glen, Northwood Management Plan, March 2008 (PDF)

Dividing a house into flats

Could a Northwood house be converted into flats?

Policy DMH 4 sets Hillingdon’s tests. Among them, conversions will only be permitted where no more than 10 per cent of properties on the residential street would be redeveloped into flats, the original building has an internal floor area of at least 120 sqm, and units are limited to one per floor. In 2010, for a house on Hilliard Road, officers recommended refusing a conversion into flats, among their reasons that the house fell below the 120 sqm the council’s guidance then treated as suitable for subdivision; the applicant withdrew it before the committee met, so no decision was made.

Hillingdon Local Plan Part 2: Development Management Policies, adopted 16 January 2020 (PDF) · Hillingdon: planning applications search (the council's planning register)

Sound, space and self-contained flats

What did officers ask of an approved Northwood conversion?

In 2011 the North Planning Committee approved, by 5 votes to 2, the extension and conversion into flats of a building on Eastbury Road. Officers had recommended a condition requiring a sound insulation scheme protecting the new flats from internal noise to be approved before work began. Today, Policy DMH 1 allows subdivision only if, among its criteria, every unit is self-contained with its own sanitary and kitchen facilities, its own entrance and, above the ground floor, an internal staircase, and Policy DMHB 16 says conversions should meet or exceed the current internal space standards.

Hillingdon: planning applications search (the council's planning register) · Hillingdon Local Plan Part 2: Development Management Policies, adopted 16 January 2020 (PDF)

Working hours, skips, parking and the conservation area maps for the whole area are in our Northwood guide. Local guidance checked ; requirements depend on the address, the building and the complete proposal.

What the work covers

What a Northwood flat refurbishment takes in

Windows, balconies and the outside of the block

The lease decides who owns and may alter the windows, balcony doors and outside walls, so the survey records their condition and the lease is read alongside it. Where the block is one the 2019 town centre appraisal describes, such as Rowland Place or Greenhill Court, its comments on that building are read before a replacement window is specified, and repair is priced against replacement.

LEASE: alterations and home improvements · Hillingdon: Northwood Town Centre, Green Lane Conservation Area Appraisal, adopted September 2019 (PDF)

Heating, hot water and electrics

Rewiring and new heating are planned with the building’s rules. For Hillingdon Council’s own leaseholders, the January 2026 booklet says anyone doing electrical work in a home has to follow the Building Regulations, and that, if not, the council’s Building Control service may insist faulty work is put right and the lease will have been broken. It also says renewable or low carbon systems such as air source heat pumps need the council’s permission as freeholder, and that leaseholders generally will not be allowed to disconnect from communal heating.

Hillingdon Council: information for Hillingdon Council leaseholders, factfile 119, January 2026 (PDF) · When Building Regulations approval is needed

Asbestos and opening up

Before walls, ceilings or floors are opened, the scope includes a check for materials that may contain asbestos, so any removal is planned rather than discovered halfway through. If your landlord is Hillingdon Council, its January 2026 leaseholder booklet asks you to check with your builder whether such materials may be affected, and says the council can offer an asbestos survey and advice on safe removal, for a charge.

Hillingdon Council: information for Hillingdon Council leaseholders, factfile 119, January 2026 (PDF)

How we work

How we run a Northwood flat refurbishment

  1. First visit

    We see the flat, then the entrance, stairs or lift that serve it.

  2. Lease and consents

    We go through the lease’s consent requirements with you and the managing agent at the start.

  3. Survey and design

    Drainage and services are traced on site. Our own architects and structural engineers design the layout and any structural change around those routes, and any new external vent or window is checked for planning.

  4. Price and contract

    A fixed written price and a JCT contract follow the survey, scope and specification. The price names its allowances and exclusions, with consent fees and any common-parts work shown separately.

  5. Working in the building

    Common parts are protected and their condition recorded; deliveries keep to the building’s rules, and noisy work to those rules and the council’s permitted hours; key decisions go to a director.

  6. Handover

    Commissioning, drawings, certificates and any managing-agent close-out. Completed work carries a 12-month defects-rectification period under the JCT contract terms.

Real projects, clearly located

Examples of our flat refurbishment work elsewhere in London

None of these projects is in Northwood. Each card names where the work was done, so you can judge the finish and the approach before you brief your own.

Your brief

Before you ask for a quotation

  1. Say which building and who manages it

    Tell us the address, the building’s name if it has one, the flat’s floor, and who the freeholder or managing agent is: a private landlord, Hillingdon Council, or for The Glen the residents’ company. That decides whose consent the drawings must satisfy first.

  2. Send the lease and any rules

    Send the lease with its plan, any deed of variation, any licence for earlier alterations and the building’s rules on works, deliveries and noise. For a maisonette at The Glen, include anything the residents’ company has sent you about alterations.

  3. List the changes you want

    Mark the walls you hope to remove, where the kitchen and bathroom should go, and any change to windows, balconies or heating. Say whether you are thinking of joining two flats or adding one, since that brings in planning policy as well as the lease.

Ready to take the next step? Send the address and a short outline of the work.

Book a free feasibility visit

Questions before you begin

Flat refurbishment in Northwood: questions

I lease my flat from Hillingdon Council. How do I get permission?

Log a request online before any work. Hillingdon’s alterations page says the council’s leaseholders must get permission to change any part of the inside or outside of the flat, and that depending on the work it may need to issue a licence or vary the lease. Without prior consent, its leases do not allow structural alterations, new windows or a new front door, removing walls, bricking up doors or altering the flat’s appearance. You are also responsible for any Building Regulations or planning approval needed.

Hillingdon Council: alterations, for the council's own leaseholders

Will Hillingdon Council let its leaseholders replace windows?

Its January 2026 booklet for leaseholders says it is likely to give permission to change windows or a front door to an agreed specification, or to install central heating, as long as certain conditions are met, and that it will ask the leaseholder to pay the administrative costs of giving permission. It adds that a front door should be a certified fire door, and that fitting the wrong type, or otherwise interfering with how the building was designed to stop fire spreading, might put you and other residents at risk.

Hillingdon Council: information for Hillingdon Council leaseholders, factfile 119, January 2026 (PDF)

Can I put handrails outside a Glen maisonette?

Ask the residents’ company first, and expect the look to matter. Under occupational therapy and mobility aids, the council’s March 2008 management plan says freestanding white metal handrails can be obtrusive and should be removed when no longer needed, and it proposed that the council and the Residents’ Association look into stained timber handrails instead. What came of that proposal is not known, so ask both what they accept now.

Hillingdon: The Glen, Northwood Management Plan, March 2008 (PDF)

Can two flats be joined back into one home?

Hillingdon’s adopted plan is in favour. Supporting text to Policy DMH 1 says proposals to combine separate flats within an original house or purpose-built block to create family-sized housing of three or more bedrooms will be supported, while the policy says the net loss of self-contained housing will be resisted unless it is replaced with at least equivalent residential floorspace. The lease, the freeholder and the Building Regulations still apply to the work itself.

Hillingdon Local Plan Part 2: Development Management Policies, adopted 16 January 2020 (PDF) · LEASE: alterations and home improvements · When Building Regulations approval is needed

Could a basement flat be created under a Northwood house?

Not where the site is at risk of flooding. Hillingdon’s plan says the council will not allow habitable rooms and other sensitive uses for self-contained basement flats in areas at risk of flooding, meaning Flood Zones 2 and 3. Where a site is at risk of flooding, its minor-development guidance also treats subdividing a house into flats as subject to the Sequential Test and outside its advice, with a more detailed flood risk assessment required for any application for additional units or change of use. Have the site’s flood risk assessed before any design work.

Hillingdon Local Plan Part 2: Development Management Policies, adopted 16 January 2020 (PDF) · Hillingdon: Minor Development Flood Risk Assessment Requirements, v2, March 2019 (PDF) · Check long-term flood risk in England

Do water-efficiency rules apply when flats are created?

Where the work needs planning permission, yes. Policy DMEI 10 says all new development proposals, including refurbishments and conversions, will be required to include water efficiency measures, among them the collection and reuse of rainwater and grey water, and that new residential development should show water use of no more than 105 litres per person per day. Interior alterations alone are not development, so refitting the inside of an existing flat falls outside the policy.

Hillingdon Local Plan Part 2: Development Management Policies, adopted 16 January 2020 (PDF) · When planning permission is required

How much does a flat refurbishment cost in Northwood?

Guide rates in Northwood are £900–£1,700/sqm excluding VAT, with a full two-bedroom refurbishment typically between £60,000 and £110,000, over a 16–32 weeks programme. A written scope and site assessment come before any fixed price.

Book a free feasibility visit

Talk to us about your Northwood flat

Tell us the address and what you want to change in your Northwood flat. We reply within one working day, Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.

Or call 020 7101 3168. We serve Northwood from our studio at Unit 3, Palace Court, 250 Finchley Road, London NW3 6DN.

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