Learn
Learn about planning, design and how a house works
Free tools and guides for self-builders and landowners in England. Try design ideas for a home in 3D, see how a well-built house works, and look up self-build register numbers, appeal decisions and the national planning rules.
Design and building
How a house worksSelf-Build Lab
Interactive models of how a new home works, from the walls to the heating. Change the weather, move the controls and watch the house respond. Each lab has a written guide.
Open the Self-Build Lab
DesignDesign patterns
Interactive 3D studies of ideas for homes and the places around them, from a window seat to a whole village.
Explore the design patterns
Planning
Planning dataSelf-build registers
How many people have joined each council's self-build register, how many plots it has granted permission for, and which councils are falling short of their legal duty.
Compare the registers
Planning decisionsSelf-build appeals
Self-build planning appeals that inspectors allowed, mapped across England, with each decision to read.
Browse the appeals
Planning policyThe new NPPF (2026) explained
What the new National Planning Policy Framework means for small sites and self-build, with free tools to test a site against it.
Read the guide