Listed Building Consent is needed before carrying out any works that will affect the special character of a Listed building internally as well as externally.
If your proposal needs planning permission and listed building consent, you should use the appropriate form on the Planning Portal that covers both applications.
There is a separate form for applying for listed building consent only.
Together with the appropriate forms and plans, your application will need to be accompanied by a Design and Access Statement which includes evidence of your understanding of the significance of the building and how your proposal affects this.
There is no fee for submitting a listed building consent application.
Ask about minor repairs to a listed building
If you are the private owner of a listed building, you can make a general enquiry to help with small scale repairs:
If further advice is required, or it is felt that the enquiry is not appropriate for this service, you will be asked to use the pre-application advice service for which a fee is applicable.
Apply for a Certificate of Lawfulness of Proposed Works to a Listed Building
This provides formal confirmation that the proposed works for alteration or extension (but not demolition) do not require listed building consent. The application form must be accompanied by:
- the appropriate plans drawn to scale; and
- a statement explaining why the applicant believes the proposed works would not affect the character of the listed building(s)
There is no fee for submitting a lawful certificate application.
What works need Listed Building Consent?
The advice below is detailed but it is important to ensure that you do apply for everything that needs consent:
- Demolition of all or any part of the historic fabric of a Listed Building
- Extensions including conservatories and porches. Altering roofs including major changes of materials, e.g., tiles to slates, replacing old tiles with new ones or changing thatching materials - long straw to water reed. Changing the form of the roof and adding new dormers, rooflights or solar panels also need consent.
- Altering walls - any major changes to materials including the infill material to a timber frame and items like exposing timber-framing, changing rendering materials or painting fair-faced brickwork. Changing external paint colours may also need consent and cleaning using any form of abrasive or chemical methods.
- Carrying out major repairs so that substantial parts of a building's historic fabric have to be replaced. Deciding what a major or minor repair is can be difficult. Small-scale like-for-like repairs do not normally need Consent. However, as most buildings are Listed because their fabric is historic, repairs that entail the replacing or rebuilding of large sections of the original fabric may need Consent; for example needing to replace rotten plates, posts and studs in a timber-framed building. It is usual a matter of degree.
- Alterations to windows and doors – Changing the size of existing openings or adding new ones; changing the design of any door or window; replacing historic doors and windows whatever the new design.
- Changing the interior – by adding new partitions or openings and blocking up existing openings or by removing and replacing historic fittings such as historic fitted cupboards, fireplace surrounds or window shutters.
- Restoring original features or finishes that have since been lost.
- Features for Modern Living and Working including adding external advertising signs, satellite dishes and burglar alarms and possibly introducing modern services such as boiler flues, external meter boxes and electrical wiring or plumbing pipe work cutting through the historic fabric.
- Curtilage is a legal term referring to, for example, the garden attached to a private house or the working farmyard attached to a farmhouse.Listed Building Consent is needed for the demolition or alteration of walls or buildings within the curtilage of a listed building and older than 1948.
Consent is not needed for detached new buildings or for new walls, gates or fences within the curtilage of a listed building. However, Planning Permission is needed:
- for the erection, alteration or improvement of any curtilage buildings
- to alter any gates, walls or fences or for the erection of new ones
English Heritage provides more information on listed buildings.
Pre-application advice
The Council offers a pre-application advice service to anyone wanting help with advice on carrying out works to a Listed Building before the submission of an application.
Works carried out without consent
When a building is listed, it is a criminal offence to carry out works that affect its architectural or historic character without the approval of the District Council. You could be liable to prosecution and/or be made to rectify what you have done. The maximum penalty can include unlimited fines or imprisonment. Therefore, it is important to get it right and make an application for all the relevant works to your listed building.