Yes, most houses in Cold Ash can be extended without a fight. Listed homes are the exception, not the rule. There is one conservation area. The neighbours apply for planning all the time. The bigger surprise is under the lawn, not on the listing register.
There are 122 listed buildings in and around the area: 2 at grade I, 7 at grade II* and 113 at grade II. These counts cover a wider patch than the village, taking in the surrounding countryside and part of the Newbury fringe, so the share of Cold Ash homes affected is smaller than the total suggests. For any listed building, changes to the inside or outside that affect its character need listed building consent on top of any planning permission, and that applies to the windows, the staircase and the chimney you were planning to remove. Buyers who fall for a listed cottage and then plan a glass box on the back tend to meet the word "sympathetic" far more often than they expected.
There is 1 conservation area in the area. Inside it, the ordinary allowances for extending without a full application are tighter, and works like demolition or changes to the front of a house can need consent. Check whether your address falls inside it before assuming the rules that apply to the house two lanes over also apply to yours.
There are 4 scheduled monuments in the wider area, the strictest level of heritage protection. They matter mainly if the land you are buying sits close to one, and for most gardens in Cold Ash they will never come up.
People here are not shy about altering their homes. Across the planning records from April 2024 to June 2026 there were 2,794 applications in the area counted, with 1,199 in the last twelve months of that window. That count covers a wider area than the village alone. The point is not how many were granted, which these records cannot say, but that altering a house here is a normal thing to try, and the planning portal is well worn.
The ground is the part buyers tend to miss. The British Geological Survey's shrink-swell classification reaches class 3 here, and about 97% of the area sits at class 3 or above. Clay soils like this swell when wet and shrink when dry, which moves foundations. For an extension, that usually means deeper foundations than the standard minimum and a structural engineer's view before the design is fixed, plus some thought about any large trees near the new wall. It is a cost to plan for, not a reason to give up.
For the ordinary house outside the conservation area and off the listing register, a modest rear extension or loft conversion may fall within permitted development, the allowance for works that need no planning application. Anything larger, anything on a listed building, or anything inside the conservation area will need consent. Confirm the house's status with the council before you rely on either route, and ask the seller for copies of any past approvals, because previous extensions use up some of the allowance.
Cold Ash sits in the middle for freedom to alter a home. Most houses carry no heritage restrictions at all, but the listed and conservation stock is real, and the clay underneath adds engineering to every plan.