Block Management in Devizes
A watershed town where a groundwater alert covers 39.42 per cent of the built-up area.
Devizes RMCs, RTM companies and freeholders can hand us the full management of a block: accounts, insurance, compliance and works. No river warning area covers the town, yet a groundwater alert covers 39.42 per cent of it, which matters most for basements, lift pits and ground-floor plant. Flats cluster in Devizes North, where 49.4 per cent of households are flatted.
What We Would Put First for a Block in Devizes
Check Below-Ground Plant for Groundwater
The Salisbury Plain groundwater alert covers 39.42 per cent of Devizes. For a block with a basement, lift pit or ground-floor plant room we would schedule inspections for water ingress and plan any remedial work into the budget.
InspectionsUse the Fee-Free Article 4 Route
Where permission is needed solely because of an Article 4 direction, the council charges no application fee. For a property at 1 to 46 Victoria Road or 1 to 9 Commercial Road we would make that application before specifying render, roof or front elevation works.
ConsentsBuild Reserves for Devizes North Blocks
Devizes North has 882 purpose-built flats among 2,232 households, with individual output areas up to 90.1 per cent flatted. For blocks there we would build reserve funds around roofs, communal areas and Section 20 cycles.
Reserve fundsManaging a Block in Devizes at a Glance
- Local authority
- Wiltshire Council
- Authority type
- Unitary
- Building control
- Wiltshire Council Building Control
- County
- Wiltshire
- Fire and rescue service
- Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service
- Water and sewerage
- Wessex Water
- Setting
- Inland
What It Costs to Move a Block in Devizes to Us
Management is a fixed annual fee, quoted for the building and agreed before we start. We take no commission and no third-party incentives, so the fee is the whole of what we earn from the building. Taking a block on carries a one-off start-up fee, set by size:
| Block size | Fee |
|---|---|
| Start-up fee, up to 10 units | £420.00 |
| Start-up fee, up to 25 units | £540.00 |
| Start-up fee, 50 units and above | £660.00 |
Taken from our published Additional Services price list, PBM Form #01-27 rev.6, effective 23 June 2025. All fees quoted are inclusive of VAT. See the full price list and how a handover works.
A Groundwater Alert Covers 39.42 Per Cent of Town
Devizes has an unusual flood position for a town of its size: no Environment Agency flood warning area covers any part of the built-up area at all. What does cover it, and covers 39.42 per cent of it, is the groundwater flooding alert for the Salisbury Plain area, and that containment is geometric rather than descriptive because the alert's own published description names twenty settlements and Devizes is not among them. Three further areas come within a hundred metres of the town without touching it. The explanation is in the council's own conservation area statement: Devizes sits at the division of the Bristol and Salisbury Avon river systems, on the watershed, which historically gave it a limited water supply and today leaves it without a river running through the middle of it. So the mechanism to plan around here is groundwater rather than a river, which matters most for basements, lift pits and ground-floor plant.
Half of Devizes North Households Live in Flats
Aggregating the census output areas inside the built-up area gives 8,932 households with 1,836 in flats, 20.6 per cent, made up of 1,492 in purpose-built blocks, 117 in a converted or shared house, 112 in another converted building and 115 over commercial premises. The distribution is the most extreme found anywhere in this research. Devizes North has 882 purpose-built flats among 2,232 households, so 49.4 per cent of that ward is flatted, against 8.9 per cent in Devizes East and 7.2 per cent in Devizes South. That is not one large institution distorting a figure either: individual output areas within the ward run at 90.1, 67.2, 59.6 and 58.6 per cent. The three Devizes wards sit wholly inside the town; the two neighbouring rural wards are largely outside it and should not be read as Devizes figures.
The Largest Grade II* Count of Wiltshire Towns Covered
Two conservation areas. The main Devizes area was designated on 26 November 1970, a date corroborated on the council's own mapping and one of only 21 of Wiltshire's 244 conservation areas that carry a designation date there at all, and it was extended on 27 October 1977 so that it now covers the whole of the town centre. The Victoria Road Quarter was designated separately on 20 September 2007. Both have dated appraisals, which is rare in this county: the Devizes Conservation Area Statement was adopted as supplementary planning guidance on 8 September 2005, and the Victoria Road Quarter character appraisal and management proposals date from September 2007. One point of precision worth having: the conservation area does include a small section of the Kennet and Avon Canal and the Wharf, which forms one of its character sub-areas, but the Caen Hill flight is not in it, sitting 1.14 kilometres outside the boundary while still inside the built-up area.
The council publishes a figure and it needs reading carefully alongside the register. Its conservation area statement refers to the 500 or so listed buildings in the town, and the made neighbourhood plan says more than 500. Counting entries on the National Heritage List inside the built-up area gives 336, with five Grade I and 43 Grade II*. Those two figures are not in conflict and should never be presented as though they were: one entry on the list routinely covers a whole terrace, so entries and buildings are different units. No grade split is published by the council. At 43, the Grade II* concentration here is the largest of the Wiltshire towns covered on this site. One boundary subtlety: a sixth Grade I entry, Devizes Castle with its glass house and garden walls, sits 33 metres outside the statistical boundary of the town, so parish-level counts give six and built-up-area counts give five, and both are right for what they measure. Two scheduled monuments fall inside the town, the castle and the Caen Hill locks, and the castle monument is 99 per cent inside the conservation area.
Seventeen of Eighteen Squares Are the Lowest Band
Low and consistent. Of the eighteen one-kilometre squares over the built-up area, seventeen are in the lowest class, covering 94 per cent of the town, where the published wording is that all parts of the square are in the lowest band of radon potential with under 1 per cent of homes at or above the action level and the advice is that measurement is not advised. A single square is class 2 at 1 to 3 per cent.
That is national advice about the ground, not about the building. The same map excludes basements, cellars and underground spaces at every band, so an enclosed plant room, undercroft or lower-ground flat is still worth a look even here, and whatever is found belongs with the compliance record.
Victoria Road Terraces Carry Six Removed Rights
Two Article 4 directions apply, and one of them is directly relevant to a very specific group of houses. The first, sealed on 15 January 2002 under article 4(1), removes permitted development rights for gates, fences, walls and other means of enclosure; it names no streets, being defined only by a plan, and its area sits on the western edge near the canal over largely open land. The second, sealed on 17 January 2007 under article 4(2), covers numbers 1 to 46 Victoria Road and numbers 1 to 9 Commercial Road, and removes six rights: openings in the front elevation, alterations to the roof slope including rooflights and solar panels, chimneys, render, pebbledash or paint on walls fronting the highway, porches on principal elevations, and boundary walls and fences. The council's own appraisal explains the target, the two storey terraced houses in those two streets. One practical note the council publishes and few people know: where planning permission is required solely because of an Article 4 direction, no application fee is charged.
Saved Kennet Policies Still Sit Beside the Core Strategy
Decided under the Wiltshire Core Strategy, adopted 20 January 2015, whose Core Policy 12 sets the spatial strategy for the Devizes community area, together with a substantial body of saved policies from the Kennet District Local Plan, which became operative on 30 April 2004. The saved Devizes-specific ones cover the prime shopping areas, the town centre, retail development, the Northgate, the Wharf and Devizes Hospital, the Lower Wharf, facilities for boat users on the Kennet and Avon Canal, the garden centre at Granby Gardens, replacement dwellings, recreation provision, areas of minimum change, existing outdoor sport facilities and allotments. The emerging Wiltshire Local Plan reached examination in November 2024 but was withdrawn on 22 May 2026 under section 22 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, and its replacement is not expected to be adopted before 30 April 2029. The council states that the 2015 Core Strategy's policies are not automatically out of date despite its plan period having run to 2026, and will continue to guide development. The Devizes Area Neighbourhood Plan was made on 7 December 2015 after a referendum on 17 September 2015 carried by 3,402 votes to 369, 90.02 per cent, on a turnout of 22.08 per cent; a replacement is in preparation. Only 0.3 per cent of the built-up area lies inside the North Wessex Downs National Landscape and neither conservation area intersects it, so the designation is not a practical constraint in the town.
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Devizes Questions
Is Radon Measurement Needed for a Devizes Block?
Generally not. Seventeen of the eighteen one-kilometre squares over the town, covering 94 per cent of it, are in the lowest class, where under 1 per cent of homes are at or above the action level and measurement is not advised. A single square is class 2 at 1 to 3 per cent, so the position is worth checking for that part of town.
Is Caen Hill Inside the Devizes Conservation Area?
No. The conservation area includes a small section of the Kennet and Avon Canal and the Wharf, but the Caen Hill flight sits 1.14 kilometres outside the boundary, while still inside the built-up area. The Caen Hill locks are, however, one of two scheduled monuments in the town, the other being the castle.
Which Planning Policies Apply in Devizes Now the Local Plan Is Withdrawn?
The Wiltshire Core Strategy of 20 January 2015 still guides development, alongside saved Kennet District Local Plan policies covering areas such as the Wharf and the town centre. The emerging Wiltshire Local Plan was withdrawn on 22 May 2026. The Devizes Area Neighbourhood Plan was made on 7 December 2015, and a replacement is in preparation.
Nearby Areas
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