Building a log cabin to live in

Many people picture a timber home among trees as the place they would love to live all year.

A log cabin can be a proper, permanent home. These notes are for people who want to build one on their own plot in England. They cover the planning steps, the building rules and the help that is open to self-builders, using GOV.UK and Planning Portal guidance.

A house, or a caravan?

The law treats some cabin-style homes as caravans. A twin-unit home built in no more than two sections, joined on site, can count as a caravan if it could still be moved by road once assembled. It must be no more than 20 metres long and 6.8 metres wide. The height inside, from the lowest floor to the highest ceiling, must be no more than 3.05 metres.

Caravan sites need a licence from the local council and follow their own rules. This page is about the other route, a cabin built as a permanent house.

Planning permission

You will probably need planning permission to build something new. Your local planning authority, through your local council, can tell you what your project needs.

A cabin in a garden needs particular care. The permitted development rules for garden buildings cover things like sheds and garages used alongside the house. They do not cover using one as separate, self-contained living space. If you build without a permission you need, the council can serve an enforcement notice ordering you to undo the work.

Building regulations

The Building Regulations 2010 cover the construction of buildings. Building regulations approval is different from planning permission, and you might need both.

The government's Approved Documents give guidance on ways to meet the regulations. A building control body can tell you what approval your project needs.

Finding a plot

Councils in England keep a register of people who want to build their own home. To join, you must be looking for a serviced plot of land in that council's area for your own project.

Councils must take the register into account in their planning and housing work. Some set a local connection test. People who meet every rule except that test go on a second part of the register.

Help for self-builders

If you build a new home for yourself or your family, you may be able to reclaim the VAT on building materials. This is the DIY housebuilders' scheme, and you need planning permission to use it. You can make only one claim. For work finished on or after 5 December 2023, you must claim within 6 months of finishing.

Some councils charge a Community Infrastructure Levy on new development. A self-build exemption is open to people building or commissioning their own home. You must own it and live in it as your main home for at least 3 years after the work is done.