Rising house prices, rising interest rates and swingeing stamp duty are forcing the British to stay put and improve. Every middle-class street seems to have at least one skip, with people digging out their basements or converting their lofts for extra space.

Halifax, the lender, says that conservatories are the most popular “nonessential” home improvement, with 66 per cent of homeowners in a survey considering them desirable. A utility room came next, at 62 per cent and loft conversion was on the to-do list for 57 per cent of homeowners.

The tighter the squeeze, the more inventive we get. And with home improvement TV programmes on regular replay and a rush of immigrant workers suddenly providing more reliable building services at cut-price rates, we are ever more likely to dig out a cellar.

The applications for these ambitious improvements can turn neighbourhoods into battlegrounds. Across the UK, surveys show that we do not like the loss of the green space in the next-door garden, we dislike walls that interrupt views from our windows or having our windows or outdoor space overlooked. We loathe anything that might lead to flooding or subsidence.

The right to protest – and the degree to which complaints will be considered – varies between local authorities. So is the kind of work that will be waved through. As a result, there is no shortage of sources of information on planning rules or highly paid consultants to help you navigate the maze. Just as well, because the rules are even more stringent in the very areas most of us most long to live: conservation areas, national parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty. This is unlikely to change.

In this atmosphere it is no surprise that speed suffers. A planning application should cost between £95 and £135, local authorities say, but legal and professional costs can push that up to £1,000. And even for the most simple application, householders must expect to wait eight weeks. Those with a greater number of interested neighbours or more complicated work can take vastly longer.

Local planning departments suffer as much as homeowners. They are under pressure to speed up the process of approval for new housing developments, to solve the shortfall of homes which is helping to push up prices. It is hoped that allowing more uncontroversial one-off domestic improvements will win them more time to ensure large-scale development is a blessing not a blight for local communities – and speed up approval time, which can end up being a decade in complicated cases.

Relaxing the current criteria that allows permitted development up to 50 cubic metres for a terrace house, or 70 cubic metres for a detached or semidetached home, might do the trick – or an increased focus on the impact on neighbours might just make the battles even more personal.

And will it be worth it? The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors says that the average cost of a 6m x 5m loft conversion with two roof windows is £14,000; the same size with two characterful dormer windows is £37,000. A kitchen revamp, if you were able to extend into your garden, would cost £11,000 to £25,000 for a terrace house, or from £30,000 to £120,000 for a detached home. And a basement conversion typically costs £100,000.

But extensions do not add as much value as we hope.

Selwyn Lim, managing director of Mouseprice.com, which analyses Land Registry data to track the value of homes, says that homeowners typically get 80 to 120 per cent of what they spent in return. “If you spend £20,000 improving your home, on average you are likely to be able to sell for between £16,000 and £24,000 more.”

Even if the White Paper rings in the changes, it is unlikely that local planning departments will be spared householders’ confused inquiries any time soon.

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