BESPOKE NEW BUILDS · CHESHIRE
JNR Construction builds bespoke new builds across Cheshire and south Greater Manchester — one-off architect-designed houses and replacement dwellings, delivered as Principal Contractor with single-point accountability from groundworks to handover. We do not build volume housing or standard house types. Most of the work on a one-off house happens before anything is built, and that is where we start.
Delivering a bespoke home requires exact execution fidelity to the original design intent. We collaborate closely with your chosen architects, structural engineers, and design teams from the earliest feasibility stages. By speaking their technical language and understanding complex specifications, we ensure your exact architectural vision is built precisely as drawn, without compromise or unauthorised site-level alterations.
Most of the work on a one-off house happens before anything is built. Across Cheshire and south Greater Manchester the binding constraint is almost never the design — it is whether the site will take a new dwelling at all, and on what terms. Four questions decide that, and the answers differ street by street rather than town by town.
A large part of our catchment is Green Belt, and several of the villages we work in sit inside an inset boundary drawn tightly around the existing settlement. Which side of that line a plot falls on changes the question entirely. Inside it, a new dwelling is an ordinary planning judgement about design, scale and amenity. Outside it, the proposal starts from a presumption against inappropriate development and has to find its way through a specific exception.
Cheshire East carries infill policy that applies in some settlements and not others, and the test is usually whether a gap genuinely reads as part of the built frontage rather than as open land between buildings. Chelford and Mobberley are the clearest cases in our area, which is why both town pages lead on the boundary rather than on house types.
We would rather tell you a plot is difficult at the first site visit than help you spend eighteen months finding out. Where a scheme is marginal, a pre-application enquiry is cheap set against a refusal.
Replacing an existing house is often a better route than arguing for a new one, and across Alderley Edge, Prestbury and Hale it is the main form of new build we are asked to deliver.
The arguments turn on volume, height, footprint and openness rather than floor area, and they are measured against what stands there now. That makes the existing building a planning asset: its dimensions, and sometimes its lawful use, form the baseline the new design is judged against. Demolishing before consent is secured removes that baseline, which is irreversible, and it gets proposed more often than it should.
Practically, a replacement brings a demolition phase with its own asbestos survey under the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012, its own waste duty of care, and a decision about whether existing foundations, drainage or service connections can be reused. Usually some can. Establishing which, before the design is fixed, takes a day of investigation and saves a good deal more.
A plot is not a blank sheet, and three things decide what building on it actually costs.
Ground comes first. Cheshire clay, made ground on former mill and industrial sites, brine instability around Sandbach and Middlewich, and salt subsidence near Northwich all change the foundation solution, and the difference between trench fill and a piled raft is substantial. A site investigation before design is the cheapest money on the project.
Access comes second. Narrow rural lanes, mature trees with root protection areas, and a single entry point for every delivery and every muckaway load all shape the programme. On a constrained plot the crane strategy can end up determining the structural design rather than the other way round.
Services come third. New water, electricity, gas and drainage connections carry their own application processes and lead times, and a plot with no adopted sewer in reach may need a package treatment plant and a separate consent. These are programme items, not afterthoughts.
Self-build means different things to different clients, and it helps to be clear which one you are.
Some want a turnkey arrangement: design team appointed, contractor appointed, one point of accountability through to handover. That is the Design-to-Build route and it is what most of our new build work looks like.
Others want to retain packages — joinery with a maker they know, a kitchen direct, landscaping separately — and run those alongside the main contract. That works, provided the interfaces are defined in writing before the programme is set, because an undefined interface is where delay and dispute both start.
A smaller number want to manage the project themselves and buy construction in trades. We are usually not the right partner for that, and we will say so rather than take the appointment and manage the consequences later.
Whichever applies, the statutory roles have to sit somewhere. Under CDM 2015 the client carries duties that do not disappear by going unmentioned, and on a domestic project the Principal Contractor normally takes them on.
What we do not take on is volume housing, developer-led schemes built to a standard house type, or a project where the design intent is still unresolved at the point of appointment. None of those suits the way we work. Where a plot sits in a conservation area or next to a listed neighbour, a new build becomes a heritage question as much as a planning one, and our heritage renovation work covers that ground. Where the brief turns out to be a substantial reconfiguration of an existing house rather than a new one, full property renovation is usually the faster and cheaper route to the same outcome.
As your appointed Principal Contractor, we take absolute responsibility for site governance and legal compliance. Our professional team manages the entire administrative and construction process, navigating full planning approval conditions, potential Section 106 and CIL considerations, and strict CDM dutyholder responsibilities. We deliver total project control, protecting your investment and ensuring programme certainty from initial groundworks through to final handover.
One-off houses and replacement dwellings are mostly a Green Belt and settlement-boundary question, which makes them a town-by-town matter. Inset boundaries and Policy PG 10 infill in Chelford and Mobberley; listed settings in Gawsworth and Prestbury; replacement-dwelling work on high-value plots in Alderley Edge; and allocated growth around Holmes Chapel and Congleton. The town pages set out which side of the boundary matters and why.
You don’t need a full set of architectural drawings to speak to us.
Whether you are at the ‘napkin sketch’ stage or ready to build, we are here to offer expert advice.
Yes, as your Design-to-Build partner, we manage the entire technical journey. This includes securing full planning approval, discharging Section 106 or CIL conditions, and ensuring total compliance with all Building Regulations and the Building Safety Act.
Absolutely. We specialise in execution fidelity, collaborating closely with your design team to ensure your architect-designed home is delivered exactly as specified, without cutting corners or compromising the original vision.
We focus exclusively on one-off, bespoke residential construction rather than volume housing developments. By operating as a Principal Contractor, we provide single-point accountability, managing complex ground conditions, advanced structural systems, and high-specification finishes with military precision.
