Plans have been put forward for five new “barn-like” homes on a farm near a Herefordshire town.

Permission has already been granted to convert redundant steel-framed barns at Newburn Farm near Kington into five houses.

But now Messrs Gwatkin of Bush Farm just over the Welsh border are seeking full planning permission (application 242019) to knock these down and build five new houses in their place.

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The “nondescript, industrial-sized” barns “have no architectural or historical value”, their application says, and their removal, along with a further three farm buildings, would bring “considerable improvements to the landscape”.

A terrace of three three-bedroom houses would then be built in a stepped arrangement on the north of the site, along with two larger four-bedroom houses with “generous” gardens to the south.

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Of “simple barn-like form” without projecting elements, the houses would be finished in slate, local stone and timber cladding. They would not have garages.

Their south-facing roofs would be fitted with solar panels, while air-source heat pumps and vehicle charging points would also be installed.

They would be “far more energy-efficient” than the approved conversions of the existing steel-framed structures, while surface water runoff would also be “greatly reduced”, the application adds.

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Comments on the application can be made until September 26.

Lying in 29 acres of land, the organic Newburn Farm is currently advertised online as “sold subject to conditions”, with a guide price of £2 million.

A courtyard of former farm buildings next to the main farmhouse has already been “tastefully converted into five dwellings”, according to the sale particulars.