Steel buildings for Devon
Machinery stores, livestock buildings, workshops and industrial units across the county. Tell us roughly what you need and you get engineered drawings and a price for the building, plus an honest figure for the base underneath it — and a straight answer on who you actually apply to, which in Devon is not one council.
Who you apply to in Devon
This is the part that catches people who have built in Cornwall before, or who have read a guide written for somewhere else. Cornwall has one planning authority for the whole county. Devon has twelve, and which one you deal with depends entirely on where the holding is.
One that is not on the list is worth saying out loud: Devon County Council does not determine a planning application for a farm building. It is the minerals and waste authority for most of the county and deals with its own development. Applications for agricultural, industrial and commercial buildings go to the district, city, unitary or National Park authority below.
| Authority | Roughly where |
|---|---|
| District, borough and city councils | |
| East Devon District Council | Exmouth, Honiton, Sidmouth, Axminster, Ottery St Mary, Seaton |
| Exeter City Council | Exeter and its immediate surrounds |
| Mid Devon District Council | Tiverton, Crediton, Cullompton, Bampton |
| North Devon Council | Barnstaple, Ilfracombe, South Molton, Braunton, Lynton |
| South Hams District Council | Totnes, Kingsbridge, Dartmouth, Salcombe, Ivybridge |
| Teignbridge District Council | Newton Abbot, Teignmouth, Dawlish, Ashburton, Bovey Tracey |
| Torridge District Council | Bideford, Holsworthy, Great Torrington, Northam, Hartland |
| West Devon Borough Council | Okehampton, Tavistock, Hatherleigh, Lydford |
| Unitary authorities | |
| Plymouth City Council | Plymouth |
| Torbay Council | Torquay, Paignton, Brixham |
| National Park authorities | |
| Dartmoor National Park Authority | Everything inside the National Park boundary |
| Exmoor National Park Authority | Everything inside the National Park boundary |
Checked September 2026.
Dartmoor and Exmoor
If your holding is inside Dartmoor or Exmoor National Park, the National Park Authority determines your application — not the district council whose area surrounds it. Parts of West Devon, Teignbridge, South Hams and Mid Devon sit inside Dartmoor; parts of North Devon sit inside Exmoor. Check the boundary before you check anything else.
It matters beyond the address on the envelope. Inside a National Park the Part 6 rights are not taken away, but the prior approval procedure bites more widely — every extension or alteration goes in front of the authority rather than only the significant ones. With the two National Parks and five National Landscapes between them, a landscape designation covers a great deal of Devon, so it is worth knowing which one you are in.
None of that is a reason not to build. It is a reason to find out which authority covers your holding and what your rights actually are before you order steel, rather than after — the same advice we give in Cornwall, for a rather more complicated reason.
Timescales are worth checking too. The figure everyone quotes is 28 days for the authority to say whether prior approval is needed. Authorities publish their own positions — East Devon, for one, states a 42-day statutory time limit on a prior notification. Work to what your own authority publishes.
The councils are changing. Yours is not.
Local government in Devon is being reorganised. The Government confirmed a four-unitary model for the county in the summer of 2026 — expanded Exeter, Plymouth and Torbay authorities alongside a single authority covering the rest of Devon — and then paused the decision in September 2026 pending a review. Nothing changes for an applicant today: the authorities listed above are the ones determining applications, and they will continue to do so throughout any transition. It is worth knowing the change is coming, and worth checking rather than assuming if you are reading this a long way from the date above.
A summary, not planning advice. The legislation is Part 6 of Schedule 2 to the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015, as amended. Confirm your position with the authority that covers your own site.
What you will find when you dig
Devon is not one kind of ground, and the differences are big enough to change what a base costs rather than just how it is built. Three broad answers cover most of the county, and none of them is a substitute for a trial hole in your own field.
The Culm — north and mid Devon
A thick sequence of Carboniferous shales, mudstones and sandstones underlies a large part of northern and central Devon. Where it outcrops, the shales weather to cold, heavy clay with impeded drainage, and on plateau tops and gentle slopes the water has nowhere to go. It is the reason Culm grassland exists, and the reason the land is grazed rather than cropped. Parts of it take well over a thousand millimetres of rain a year.
For a building that is three separate problems. Heavy clay bulks hard when you dig it, so more leaves the site than the hole suggests and the muck-away climbs. It holds water, so your formation can be soft exactly when you need plant running on it, and the work becomes weather-dependent in a way free-draining ground never is. And it moves with the seasons, which is a question for whoever designs your pad foundations rather than something to have an opinion about.
Drainage first
On Culm ground, where the water goes is a design decision taken before the slab, not a detail settled afterwards. A perfectly specified floor sitting in a puddle has still failed.
It is entirely buildable. It is not buildable in February without thinking about it first, and a programme that assumes otherwise will slip.
The red land — east and mid Devon
The New Red Sandstone country around Exeter and eastwards is the red soil the county is known for. Broadly it works more kindly and drains better than the Culm, which usually means an easier dig, a firmer formation and a shorter weather window to worry about. Broadly. There is clay in it in places, and the only way to know which you have is to look.
Granite and slate — Dartmoor and the south
Dartmoor granite and the Devonian slates of the south coast and the South Hams are a different job. Harder to dig, sometimes considerably, and broken rock bulks more than anything else on this page — which puts the cost back into the muck-away even when the formation you end up with is the best of the three. Shallow rock can also mean a pad design conversation rather than a straightforward dig.
The calculator takes all three. Set the ground type to clay, loam or rock and the bulking changes with it, which is what moves the lorry count.
What are you looking to put up?
Each one covers what the building is, how it gets sized, where you stand on planning, and what the base underneath it comes to.
Machinery store
Clear span, no posts in the way, and a floor that works harder than most. What it costs to put up and what it costs underneath.
Grain store
Walls that get pushed from the inside, a floor that takes a loader, and a roof that rains on the crop if you get it wrong.
Livestock building
Housing that has to ventilate, drain and be scraped out. Falls, channels and the slurry rules — plus the 400 metre planning trap.
Farm workshop
Room to get a machine in and work all round it, with a floor specced for the jack rather than the tractor.
Hay barn
Open sides, air through it, and the lightest slab on the farm — if it needs one at all.
General purpose building
The shed that ends up doing everything. How to spec a building for a use you have not decided yet.
Stables and arenas
Stable blocks, American barns and indoor arenas. The same steel frame as a farm building — and a completely different planning position.
Garages and workshops
Steel framed garages, home workshops and man caves at the house. The eaves limit that decides whether you need planning permission, and the floor underneath.
Industrial unit
Workshops, warehousing, trade counters and light manufacturing. Full planning, full Building Regs, and a yard that often costs more than the shed.
Something not on the list — a silage clamp, a lean-to, a building that does not fit a category? Priced the same way.Tell us what you need. And whichever it is, it can be built cold rolled or hot rolled, which changes the price, the lead time and the foundations.
The base does not change at the border
A frame quote covers the frame, the cladding, the doors and — if you ask for it — erection. The site strip, the cut and fill, the stone, the slab, the drainage and the access track are groundworks, and they are a separate trade on a separate bill whether you buy them from the supplier or from a contractor down the road.
You may well be handed a foundation drawing showing what the slab and the pads have to be. That is worth having, and it is not a quantity. It does not tell you how much concrete you are ordering, how much stone, how much topsoil is coming off the field or how many lorry loads are leaving it. The calculator does, and it does not care which county you are in — it is geometry, worked from your dimensions and what your ground is doing.
Common questions
- Who do I apply to for a farm building in Devon?
- Not one authority, which is the difference from Cornwall. Most of Devon is covered by district, borough and city councils, each determining its own applications: East Devon, Exeter, Mid Devon, North Devon, South Hams, Teignbridge, Torridge and West Devon. Plymouth and Torbay are unitary authorities dealing with everything inside their own boundaries. And Dartmoor National Park Authority and Exmoor National Park Authority are responsible for planning inside the National Parks — so if your holding is in one, that is who you apply to, not the district council around it. Devon County Council is not the answer for a farm building: it deals with minerals, waste and its own development. Find which authority covers your holding before you do anything else, because it changes the forms, the timescale and who you are talking to.
- Is Devon changing to unitary councils, and does that affect my application?
- It is changing, and it does not affect an application you are making now. The Government confirmed a four-unitary model for Devon in the summer of 2026 and then paused the decision in September 2026 pending a review. Even if it proceeds, new authorities take years to stand up and the existing councils keep determining applications throughout the transition — planning does not stop while the org chart is redrawn. The practical advice is unchanged: apply to the authority that covers your holding today, and if you are reading this long after it was written, check rather than assume.
- Can I use permitted development for a building on Dartmoor or Exmoor?
- The rights are not removed, which is what most people assume. What changes inside a National Park is that the prior approval procedure applies more widely — to every extension or alteration of a building rather than only to significant ones — so more of what you do needs putting in front of the authority first. And the authority is the National Park, not your district council. Establish your position with them before you commit to a frame, because the route and the timescale may not be the one you were expecting.
- How long does prior approval take in Devon?
- The figure usually quoted is 28 days for the authority to confirm whether prior approval is needed. Individual authorities publish their own timescales and validation requirements though — East Devon, for example, publishes a 42-day statutory time limit for determining a prior notification. Check the published position of the authority that actually covers your holding rather than working to a number you read somewhere general, and allow for the fact that they may come back asking for more detail.
- What ground am I likely to be building on in Devon?
- It depends which part, and the differences are big enough to change the bill. Much of north and mid Devon sits on the Culm Measures, where the shales weather to cold, heavy clay with impeded drainage — the ground that makes Culm grassland what it is. East and mid Devon has the New Red Sandstone country, the red land, which generally works and drains more kindly. The Dartmoor granite and the slates of the south and the coast are a different job again, harder to dig and usually better to build on. None of that tells you what is under your particular field. A trial hole does, and it takes an afternoon.
- Why does heavy clay matter for a steel building base?
- Three reasons, and they compound. It bulks badly when you dig it, so more of it leaves the site than the hole suggests and the muck-away climbs. It holds water, so the formation can be soft when you need to be running plant on it and the work gets weather-dependent in a way free-draining ground does not. And it moves with the seasons, which is a question for whoever designs your pads rather than a matter of opinion. None of it stops you building. It changes when you do it and what it costs, which is exactly why it is worth knowing before you order steel rather than after.
- Do you cover the whole of Devon?
- Yes — north and south coast, Dartmoor and Exmoor fringes, the Culm, the South Hams, the Blackdowns and everything between. Agricultural, industrial and commercial buildings all get handled the same way, and the supplier who prices your frame works across the South West rather than out of one town.
- Is the groundworks calculator any use in Devon?
- It is county-agnostic. Concrete volumes, sub-base tonnages, topsoil strip and muck-away loads are geometry — they come from the size of your building and what your ground is doing, not from which side of the Tamar you are on. What does change is what you find when you dig, which is why it asks about the ground rather than assuming, and why the clay setting exists.
Get a price for your building in Devon
Rough span and length is enough to start with, and it helps to say where you are — the authority and the ground both change with it. You get engineered drawings and a price, including the pad foundation sizes, and every enquiry gets a reply the same day.