Planning Permission Explained:
The planning system plays an important role in helping protect the environment in our towns and cities and in the countryside. In England and Wales, a 'plan-led system' outlines what can be built and where.
Communities and Local Government' sets out national planning policy, but the main responsibility rests with local planning authorities.
Each local authority must produce a Local Development Framework which outlines how planning will be managed in your area. It is important that individuals and communities get involved when the documents are prepared.
Your local planning authority is responsible for deciding whether a development - from an extension on a house to a new shopping centre - should go ahead.
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Planning permission and building regulations
Most new buildings or major changes to existing buildings or to the local environment need consent - known as planning permission.
Obtaining planning permission approval is a separate matter from building regulations approval.
Similarly, receiving any planning permission which your work may require is not the same as taking action to ensure that it complies with the building regulations.
Find out if you need planning permission
The following are common examples of when you will need to apply for planning permission:
* You want to make additions or extensions to a flat or maisonette (including those converted from houses). (But you do not need planning permission to carry out internal alterations or work which does not affect the external appearance of the building.)
* You want to divide off part of your house for use as a separate home (for example, a self-contained flat or bed-sit) or use a caravan in your garden as a home for someone else. (But you do not need planning permission to let one or two of your rooms to lodgers.)
* You want to divide off part of your home for business or commercial use (for example, a workshop) or you want to build a parking place for a commercial vehicle at your home.
* You want to build something which goes against the terms of the original planning permission for your house - for example, your house may have been built with a restriction to stop people putting up fences in front gardens because it is on an "open plan" estate. Your council has a record of all planning permissions in its area.
* The work you want to do might obstruct the view of road users.
* The work would involve a new or wider access to a trunk or classified road.
You do not always need planning permission. It is not required, generally speaking, for changes to the inside of buildings, or for small alterations to the outside such as the installation of telephone connections and alarm boxes.
Other small changes, for example putting up walls and fences below a certain height, have a general planning permission for which a specific application is not required.
Elsewhere in this service there is further advice on when you will need to apply for planning permission. If this does not cover what you wish to do, you should discuss your proposals with the planning department of your council.
Enforcement
If you go ahead with your development without the required permission, the local council that is the planning authority for your area may ask you to make a retrospective planning application.
If it decides that permission should not be granted it may require you to put things back as they were. You can appeal but if the verdict comes out against you and you still refuse to comply you may be prosecuted.
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Learn how to make an application
You apply to your council for planning permission. Planning applications are decided in line with the development plan unless there are very good reasons not to do so. Points that will be looked at include the following:
* number, size, layout, siting and external appearance of buildings;
* proposed means of access, landscaping and impact on the neighborhood;
* availability of infrastructure, such as roads and water supply; and
* proposed use of the development.
It is not necessary to make the application yourself. If you wish, you can appoint an agent (for instance, an architect, a solicitor, or a builder) to make it for you.
Anyone can make an application, irrespective of who owns the land or buildings concerned. However, if you are not the owner, or if you have only part-ownership, you have to inform the owner or those who share ownership, including any leaseholder whose lease still has seven or more years to run, and any agricultural tenant.
What is planning?
Planning is about how we plan for, and make decisions about, the future of our cities, towns and countryside. Over the centuries, a formal way of making these decisions was set up.
Your local planning authority is responsible for deciding whether a development - anything from an extension on a house to a new shopping centre - should go ahead.
Local planning authority usually means the district or borough council - not the parish or town council.
The planning system is needed to control development in your area.
Development control
Most people only come into contact with the planning system when decisions have to be taken about whether something can be built in their area.
Most new buildings or major changes to existing buildings or to the local environment need consent - known as planning permission.
Each application for planning permission is made to the local planning authority for the area.
The application must include enough detail for the authority to see what effect the development could have on the area.
If the planning application is in line with the approved plan, the applicant can usually expect to receive planning permission within eight weeks for householders. Approval for larger, commercial developments often take longer
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Permitted development
Some types of minor building work - such as a boundary wall below a certain height - do not need planning permission.
This is because the effect of these developments on neighbors or the environment is likely to be small, and the government has issued a general planning permission to authorize them. This is known as permitted development.
Some areas have special protection against certain developments because they contain attractive landscape (like national parks) or interesting plants and wildlife, or because we need to control the spread of towns and villages into open countryside (like the greenbelt).
Some smaller areas of land also contain ancient monuments that must not be damaged. Some buildings are specially protected or listed because of their architectural or historic interest.
Your local planning authority can let you know whether you need permission.
If the local authority refuses permission, the person applying can appeal to the government.
Appeals are dealt with by the Planning Inspectorate.
Working from home
You do not necessarily need planning permission to work from home. The key test is whether the overall character of the home will change as a result of a business being conducted from the property. If the answer to any of the following questions is yes, then permission will probably be needed.
* Will your home no longer be used mainly as a private home?
* Will your business result in a marked rise in traffic or people calling?
* Will your business involve any activities unusual in a residential area?
* Will your business disturb your neighbours at unreasonable hours or create other forms of nuisance such as noise or smells?
Whatever business you carry out from your home - whether it involves using part of it as a bedsit or for bed-and-breakfast accommodation, using a room as your personal office, providing a childminding service, using rooms for dressmaking or music teaching, using buildings in the garden for repairing cars or storing goods connected with a business - the key test is: is it still mainly a home or has it become a business premises?
Flats over shops
You may be able to convert space over a shop (and certain space over premises with a display window), or over a ground floor office, into a single flat without putting in a planning application if you can answer yes to the following requirements:
* The space is in the same class of use as the shop or office to start with. You can view use classes here.
* The space is not in a separate planning unit from the shop
* You will not change the outside appearance of the building
* If there is a display window at ground floor level, you will not incorporate any of the ground floor into the flat
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Extending or altering existing premises
You will always need to apply for planning permission to extend shops or office premises. However, minor extensions to industrial buildings, including putting up additional buildings within the curtilage, may not require planning permission.
If you are extending or altering a listed building or a building in a conservation area, you may require planning permission as well as listed building and conservation area consent before you proceed with any works.
Factory or warehouse extensions
Planning permission will not normally be required if your extension is:
* Less than 1,000 square metres of floor space, and
* Less than 25 per cent of the volume of the original building, and
* Below the height of the original building
The building must be related to the current use of the building or the provision of staff facilities.
Planning permission will be required if the extension:
* Materially affects the external appearance of the building, or
* Comes within five metres of the boundary of the site, or
* Reduces the amount of space available for parking or turning vehicles
Building volume is calculated from external measurements - use the Planning Portal's Volume Calculator tool. 'Original' means as first built, or as the building stood on 1 July 1948, if built before then. The extension volume allowance is once and for all; any previous enlargement of the building counts against these freedoms.
Building new premises
The construction of new premises nearly always needs an application for planning permission. The development plan for your area will give you some indication of whether your proposal is likely to be acceptable, so it is worth talking to your local planning authority before submitting an application.
If there are difficulties, officers may be able to suggest ways to make your proposal more acceptable. However, they cannot guarantee that planning permission will be granted.
Crime prevention
It is often possible to design a new building in a way that will help prevent crime. It is important that this aim should feature in discussions with your council at the beginning of the design process. Once development has been completed, the main opportunity to incorporate crime prevention measures will have been lost.
The police have Crime Prevention Officers and many also have Architectural Liaison Officers, who will be able to advise on appropriate measures to combat crime. Contact the Crime Prevention Department of your local police service headquarters for advice.
Signs and adverts
You need consent for almost all hoarding, illuminated signs outside the deemed consent allowances, fascia signs and projecting signs on shop fronts or business premises which are higher than 4.6m above ground level and most advertisements on gable ends. You also need permission for signs advertising goods not sold at the premises where the sign is placed.
When considering applications, the local planning authority takes into account aspects of 'amenity' and 'public safety'. Some advice on this is available in Planning Policy Guidance Note 19 - Outdoor Advertisement Control.
Amenity usually means the effect an advertisement has on the immediate neighbourhood. For example, if an advertisement would visually dominate a group of 'listed' buildings or a residential area it is more likely to be refused. But where there are large buildings and main highways, for example in industrial or commercial areas, the local planning authority may grant consent for a large hoarding which might not look out of place.
Amenity considerations do not include content, subject matter, or public decency. These factors are controlled by a voluntary code of conduct supervised by the Advertising Standards Authority.
Public safety means the safety of road traffic, other modes of transport or pedestrians. The local planning authority assesses likely effects on driver behaviour and possible confusion with traffic signs or signals.
The local planning authority knows that advertisements are intended to attract people's attention, so signs would not automatically be regarded as a distraction to road users. However, what really matters is whether a sign is so distracting or confusing that it creates a danger.
Building demolition
If you decide to demolish a building, even one which has suffered fire or storm damage, it does not automatically follow that you will get planning permission to build a replacement.
Listed buildings and buildings in conservation areas
You do not need to make a planning application to demolish a listed building or to demolish a building in a designated conservation area. However, special consent may well be required. You should discuss this with your local planning authority before you take any decision to demolish buildings in sensitive locations to avoid the risk of legal action being taken against you.
You will not normally need to apply for planning permission to knock down your house or any of its outbuildings, unless the council has made an 'Article 4 direction' restricting the demolition or alterations you could normally carry out under permitted development rules.
However, where demolition of any kind of residential property is proposed, the council may wish to agree the details of how you intend to carry out the demolition and how you propose to restore the site afterwards. You will need to apply for a formal decision on whether the council wishes to approve these details before you start demolition. This is what is called a 'prior approval application' and your council will be able to explain what it involves.
Fences, walls and gates
You will not need to apply for planning permission to take down a fence, wall or gate, or to alter or improve an existing fence, wall or gate (no matter how high) if you don't increase its height. In a conservation area, however, you might need conservation area consent to take down a fence, wall or gate.
Change of Use
The Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order 1987 (as amended) puts uses of land and buildings into various categories. A 'Use Class' is a grouping together of similar land uses. For example, shops are grouped as class A1, restaurants and cafés as A3, hotels as C1.
Changes of use not requiring planning permission
In many cases involving similar types of use, a change of use of a building or land does not need planning permission. Planning permission is not needed when both the present and proposed uses fall within the same 'class', or if the Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order says that a change of class is permitted to another specified class.
For example, a greengrocer's shop could be changed to a shoe shop without permission as these uses fall within the same 'class', and a restaurant could be changed to a shop or a estate agency as the Use Class Order allows this type of change to occur without requiring planning permission.
However, many changes of use do require planning permission. You can use this table to work out whether a proposed change of use requires permission.
Most external building work associated with a change of use is likely to require planning permission.
Before you negotiate a lease or buy a property for your business, check whether you need to obtain planning permission for your intended use, and, if so, your chances of getting it.
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