Planning & Permissions
228 sources in the library on planning & permissions, 40 on this page cited in a published note. Each one says what the document covers and what it is good for. Name a source to see which document it is and where to read it. One at a time. Page 2 of 6.
- very strong RN-3KGCLW cited
Planning Portal
States plainly that fences, walls and gates do not require building regulation approval, and that although building regulations do not apply the structures must be structurally sound and maintained. Adds that garden and boundary walls should be inspected periodically for repair or rebuilding, noting that wall collapse is one of the most common causes of death by falling masonry. This is the source to cite against any note claiming a garden or freestanding retaining wall needs Building Regulations approval or an Approved Document A submission.
Cited in Garden & Retaining Walls: Cost & Build.
- very strong RN-N80QRQ cited
Planning Portal
The Planning Portal's homeowner summary of GPDO Schedule 2 Part 2 Class A. No permission needed where the structure does not exceed one metre in height from ground level next to a highway, or two metres in height elsewhere, and where an existing structure's height is not increased beyond those limits. Permission IS needed where the site is a listed building or within its curtilage, or where the boundary involves a neighbouring listed building or its curtilage. Notes that in a conservation area you might need permission to TAKE DOWN a fence, wall or gate, which is the reverse of what most readers expect. Also notes the right can be removed by an article four direction or a planning condition. Ends with the standard caveat that this is introductory guidance and the local planning authority should be checked.
Cited in Driveway Gates & Automation, Fencing Cost & Types: A UK Guide, Garden Gate Installation Cost: 2026 UK Price Guide, How to Cut Plastic Lattice Fencing and 1 more.
- very strong RN-L05ZUQ cited
Planning Portal
The Planning Portal's guide to listed building consent, which lists the information an application must include.
- very strong RN-CUHD2J cited
Planning Portal
The Planning Portal's best-practice guide to plans for planning applications. It gives the usual scales for location and site plans.
Cited in Do You Need Planning Permission for a Loft Conversion?.
- very strong RN-4IXS1P cited
Planning Portal
Planning Portal guidance on extensions. It notes an extension can be permitted development yet still needs approval under the Building Regulations, which are a separate regime.
- very strong RN-WV45MH cited
Planning Portal
Planning Portal guidance on private building control. It explains that registered building control approvers replaced approved inspectors, with registration required by 6 April 2024.
Cited in Completion Certificates & Why They Matter, Extension Building Regulations: Homeowner Guide.
- very strong RN-9ZDL4Y cited
Planning Portal
The Planning Portal's guide to regularisation. It explains the retrospective application and that work may need to be exposed or put right before a certificate is given.
- very strong RN-2W6X0I cited
Scottish Government
Scottish Government guide to planning appeals. It explains that delegated decisions on local developments are challenged by review at the council's local review body rather than appeal to Ministers.
- very strong RN-DM9ZVH cited
The National Archives
Section 60(1): the boundary of a registered estate as shown for the purposes of the register is a GENERAL BOUNDARY unless shown as determined under this section. Section 60(2): a general boundary does not determine the exact line of the boundary. Section 60(3) allows rules to set the circumstances, method and application procedure for determining an exact boundary and for registering it; section 60(4) requires those applications to be made to the registrar. This is the statutory basis for saying a Land Registry title plan cannot settle a fence line or fence ownership, which matters in fencing, hedge, extension and boundary dispute notes.
Cited in Fencing Cost & Types: A UK Guide.
- very strong RN-8W22IZ cited
The National Archives
the extension of the planning enforcement time limits to ten years and the date it took effect
- very strong RN-GKJH28 cited
The National Archives
Section 1(5) of the Listed Buildings Act defines what a listing covers: fixed objects and curtilage structures forming part of the land since before 1 July 1948.
Cited in Do You Need Planning Permission? A UK Homeowner's Guide, Listed Building Consent: What You Can & Can't Do.
- very strong RN-E7JU0A cited
The National Archives
Section 3 of the Prescription Act 1832. It makes a right to light absolute after twenty years' uninterrupted enjoyment, unless enjoyed by written consent.
- very strong RN-H19HEP cited
The National Archives
Section 2 of the Rights of Light Act 1959. It sets out registration of a light obstruction notice by the Chief Land Registrar as a local land charge, with an Upper Tribunal certificate.
- very strong RN-TEL7IQ cited
The National Archives
The transitional provision for the 2024 change to enforcement time limits. It keeps the old four-year limits where operations were substantially completed, or the change of use to a dwellinghouse occurred, before commencement.
- very strong RN-3LRTTY cited
The National Archives
Article 15 of the DMPO sets how applications are publicised, including a site notice or neighbour notification for at least 21 days.
Cited in Do You Need Planning Permission? A UK Homeowner's Guide.
- very strong RN-ZRVGWJ cited
The National Archives
the period a local planning authority has to determine an application for a certificate of lawfulness
Cited in Do You Need Planning Permission for a Garden Room?, Do You Need Planning Permission for a Loft Conversion?, Do You Need Planning Permission for an Extension?, Does an Extension Add Value to Your Home? and 4 more.
- very strong RN-M5IFLN cited
The National Archives
Regulation 8 of the Welsh planning fees regulations exempts a qualifying repeat application following a refusal or withdrawal from the fee.
Cited in Do You Need Planning Permission? A UK Homeowner's Guide.
- very strong RN-OTUQBK cited
The National Archives
Regulation 11 of the Scottish planning fees regulations makes a qualifying repeat application within 12 months of a refusal free.
Cited in Do You Need Planning Permission? A UK Homeowner's Guide.
- very strong RN-EZ53YY cited
The National Archives
Article 2 of the GPDO defines dwellinghouse for Part 1; the definition excludes buildings containing flats and the flats within them.
Cited in Conservation Area Rules for Homeowners, Do You Need Planning Permission? A UK Homeowner's Guide, Do You Need Planning Permission for a Loft Conversion?, Do You Need Planning Permission for an Extension? and 5 more.
- very strong RN-7YVR3M cited
The National Archives
The permitted development right to add storeys to a house, subject to prior approval. It excludes houses built before 1 July 1948 or after 28 October 2018 and article 2(3) land.
Cited in Do You Need Planning Permission for a Loft Conversion?.
- very strong RN-B3EWHK cited
The National Archives
The national permitted development right for boundary enclosures, and the answer to the very common error of treating fence height as a council rule. Class A permits the erection, construction, maintenance, improvement or alteration of a gate, fence, wall or other means of enclosure. A.1 exclusions: (a) adjacent to a HIGHWAY USED BY VEHICULAR TRAFFIC the height must not exceed 1 metre above ground level, except at a school where 2 metres is allowed provided any part above 1 metre does not obstruct highway users' sightlines; (b) anywhere else 2 metres above ground level; (c) where an existing enclosure is maintained, improved or altered its height must not exceed its former height or the (a)/(b) limit, whichever is the greater, so an existing over-height fence may be kept at that height but not raised; (d) development is NOT permitted within the curtilage of, or to a boundary of, a listed building. The 'used by vehicular traffic' qualifier is routinely dropped from consumer guidance, which wrongly applies the 1 metre limit to a boundary onto a footpath.
Cited in Chain Link Fence Cost: 2026 UK Price Guide, Driveway Gates & Automation, Fencing Cost & Types: A UK Guide, Garden Gate Installation Cost: 2026 UK Price Guide and 8 more.
- very strong RN-GT9QWK cited
The National Archives
The pre-2024 text of section 171B. It set a four-year enforcement limit for operational development and for change of use of a building to a single dwellinghouse.
- very strong RN-R3M2OR cited
The National Archives
Section 191 of the 1990 Act. Subsection (6) makes the lawfulness of anything covered by a certificate conclusively presumed, which is what protects owners from enforcement.
Cited in Lawful Development Certificates Explained, Planning Consultants: When They're Worth the Fee, Planning Enforcement Explained for Homeowners.
- very strong RN-JEP7ZH cited
The National Archives
Section 91 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990: in England development must begin within three years of the grant of planning permission unless the permission says otherwise.
- very strong RN-PLCHI4 cited
The National Archives (legislation.gov.uk)
The Scottish statutory provision on completion certificates. It puts the duty on the relevant person to submit the certificate to the verifier after warrant work is finished.
- very strong RN-HSA990 cited
The National Archives (legislation.gov.uk)
Section 51 requires a registered building control approver, once satisfied the work is complete, to give the local authority a final certificate for work under its initial notice.
Cited in Building Regs for Loft Conversions: Homeowner Checklist, Completion Certificates & Why They Matter.
- very strong RN-ZGG25U cited
The National Archives (legislation.gov.uk)
Section 53 of the Building Act 1984. It covers what happens when an approver's initial notice ends: the council takes over and may require plans and information from the outgoing approver.
- very strong RN-3VD46B cited
The National Archives (legislation.gov.uk)
Section 2 of the Misrepresentation Act 1967 (England and Wales): a party induced into a contract by a misrepresentation can recover damages, and the court's powers where rescission is claimed.
- very strong RN-K29A3Q cited
The National Archives (legislation.gov.uk)
Section 38 of the 1990 Act, the power to serve a listed building enforcement notice requiring steps to restore the building to its former state or alleviate the effect of the works.
Cited in Listed Building Consent: What You Can & Can't Do, Reclaimed Materials: Buying & Using, Thatched Roof Cost: 2026 UK Price Guide.
- very strong RN-8IIL48 cited
The National Archives (legislation.gov.uk)
The statutory ecclesiastical exemption. s.60(1) disapplies the listed building consent requirement for any ecclesiastical building 'for the time being used for ecclesiastical purposes'. The trigger is therefore current use, not deconsecration and not a change of ownership: the exemption falls away when the building stops being used for worship. s.60(3) treats a building used or available for use by a minister of religion wholly or mainly as a residence as NOT an ecclesiastical building, unless it is a chapel forming part of an episcopal house of residence on the Church Buildings Council list or subject to faculty jurisdiction. Use this rather than any secondary summary of the ecclesiastical exemption.
- very strong RN-MT6TNZ cited
The National Archives (legislation.gov.uk)
The designation power. Every local planning authority shall from time to time determine which parts of their area are areas of special architectural or historic interest the character or appearance of which it is desirable to preserve or enhance, and shall designate those areas as conservation areas. Subsection (2) imposes a duty to review past designations and designate further areas. Subsection (3) lets the Secretary of State determine that an undesignated part of an authority's area is of special architectural or historic interest. This is the national authority for what a conservation area IS; the designation of any particular area remains a local act and cannot be generalised.
Cited in Conservation Area Rules for Homeowners.
- very strong RN-XN22L9 cited
The National Archives (legislation.gov.uk)
The provision that decides when listed building consent is actually needed, and the answer to the common overstatement that any alteration to a listed building requires consent. Section 7(1): 'no person shall execute or cause to be executed any works for the demolition of a listed building or for its alteration or extension in any manner which would affect its character as a building of special architectural or historic interest, unless the works are authorised under section 8.' The trigger is therefore effect on character as a building of special architectural or historic interest, not alteration as such, so work with no effect on that character falls outside the restriction. Section 7(2) makes subsection (1) subject to section 33(1) of the Planning Act 2008, which excludes the requirement for other consents where development consent is required. Authorisation itself comes from section 8.
Cited in Adding Porch, Alcove Cupboards & Built-in Storage: Cost & Ideas, Awning Installation Cost: Patio & Garden Awnings, Chimney Repair, Removal & Flashing Costs and 63 more.
- very strong RN-QFPPLI cited
The National Archives (legislation.gov.uk)
Regulation 3 of the 1990 Regulations, which sets the eight-week period within which a council must decide a valid listed building consent application unless a longer period is agreed.
Cited in Listed Building Consent: What You Can & Can't Do, Renovating a Listed Building: Practical Guide.
- very strong RN-U33Z0J cited
The National Archives (legislation.gov.uk)
The statutory instrument, SI 1985/1066, that set up private approved inspectors as an alternative to council building control. It settles that the private route dates from 1985.
- very strong RN-WDR7CV cited
The National Archives (legislation.gov.uk)
The 2024 regulations under which registered building control approvers work in England: initial notices, amendment notices, consultation, plans certificates and final certificates.
- very strong RN-UQQM60 cited
The National Archives (legislation.gov.uk)
The Northern Ireland regulation on completion certificates. It requires the district council to issue a completion certificate once satisfied the relevant requirements are met.
- very strong RN-N75E11 cited
The National Archives (legislation.gov.uk)
The principal regulations for building control in England, as amended by the Building Safety Act 2022 changes. Part 2 covers control of building work, material change of use (regulations 5 and 6) and exemptions; Part 2A sets out the dutyholder and competence duties on clients, designers and contractors; Part 3 covers notices, plans and certificates, including regulation 12 (giving a building notice or an application for building control approval), regulation 13 (particulars and plans for a building notice), regulation 14 (applications for building control approval with full plans) and regulation 17 (completion certificates). Part 5 covers self-certification and third-party certification schemes, Part 6 energy efficiency requirements and Part 7 water efficiency. Schedule 1 holds the technical requirements in Parts A to S that the Approved Documents give guidance on.
- very strong RN-W42VX6 cited
The National Archives (legislation.gov.uk)
Regulation 13 lists what a building notice must contain; for an erection or extension it requires a 1:1250 plan showing the building, boundaries and drainage particulars.
- very strong RN-LHGIK5 cited
The National Archives (legislation.gov.uk)
Regulation 2(3) defines a thermal element as a wall, floor or roof separating conditioned space from outside or from an unconditioned part of the building.
Cited in Bathroom Remodel Cost: 2026 UK Price Guide, Building Regs for Loft Conversions: Homeowner Checklist, How to Insulate Garage, Outdoor Shower Cost: 2026 UK Price Guide.
- very strong RN-T67JO7 cited
The National Archives (legislation.gov.uk)
Class 6, small detached buildings, is the source of the 15 m2 and 30 m2 figures that renovation copy routinely misattributes to permitted development. A detached single-storey building with a floor area not exceeding 30 m2 containing no sleeping accommodation is exempt from the Building Regulations where no point of it is less than one metre from the boundary of its curtilage, or where it is constructed substantially of non-combustible material. Separately, a detached building with a floor area not exceeding 15 m2 containing no sleeping accommodation is exempt regardless of its position relative to the boundary. Sleeping accommodation defeats both. Schedule 2 also covers Classes 1 to 7 including greenhouses, agricultural buildings, temporary buildings, ancillary buildings and small conservatories and porches.
Cited in Garage Extension Cost & Ideas (2026), Home Dance Studio Cost: 2026 UK Price Guide.