Yes, and Cranfield has less heritage red tape than most villages. There is no conservation area. Only a handful of buildings are listed, and the chance that you're buying one is small. Hundreds of planning applications go in every year. The ground is a bigger obstacle than the planning rules.
Historic England lists 13 buildings in and around Cranfield: one at Grade I, none at Grade II*, and 12 at Grade II. Listing covers the whole building, inside and out, so changes need listed building consent on top of any planning permission, and the council looks hard at materials and detail. For the other houses in Cranfield, listing doesn't apply. The one Grade I building is a reminder that Cranfield has history, even if very little of that history now gets in the way of a building project.
There is one scheduled monument in the area, the strictest form of heritage protection, and it matters only if your land runs up against it.
Central Bedfordshire's planning records list 1,168 applications from Cranfield between April 2024 and June 2026, and 541 in the most recent twelve months. Cranfield's residents are plainly extending, converting and altering their homes. Search the council's planning portal for the street you're interested in. Someone near the house has probably applied for something like what you have in mind, and the drawings and the council's comments are public. Reading a neighbour's file costs nothing, unlike hiring an architect to find out the same thing.
The ground is where Cranfield sets its conditions. The British Geological Survey puts the area's shrink-swell hazard at class 3, and every part of Cranfield reaches that class. Shrink-swell is clay that swells when wet and shrinks when dry, so an extension needs foundations deep enough to stay below the movement, especially near trees. That is something to plan and budget for, not a reason to give up. A structural engineer's view on foundation depth belongs in the plan from the start, and building control will want to see it anyway.
With no conservation area and very few listed buildings, most houses in Cranfield have the normal permitted development rights. That means many single-storey rear extensions, loft conversions and outbuildings can go ahead within national size limits without a full planning application. Flats don't have those rights, and some newer estates had them removed by conditions when they were built, so the title and the original planning consent are worth reading. If the project falls inside permitted development, a lawful development certificate from Central Bedfordshire Council puts that in writing.
Your freedom to change a house is one of Cranfield's strengths. The council asks for very little, and the clay will make you pay for proper foundations.