Do I need planning permission?
This depends on what you want to do. Some minor alterations and extensions, particularly to houses, can often be carried out without the need for planning permission. The government has given a range of minor developments planning permission so that you don't need to apply for planning permission for them. This is called permitted development. The legislation for this is very complex but the parsol scripts should help you to work out if your proposal is permitted development or if you need to apply for planning permission from us.
Most alterations to business premises do need planning permission, including: extensions; alterations to shop fronts; external security shutters or grilles.
You may also need planning permission to change of use of your property, for example from a shop to an office or conversion of a dwelling into flats.
General advice on whether or not you need permission is available from the Planning Portal
To assist you to determine whether or not planning permission is required, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) produce the following Guides:
Householders
ODPM - Planning: A Guide for Householders
Planning Portal - Visual guide to planning permission
Business
ODPM - Planning Permission: A Guide for Business
This page was last updated on 24 January 2008
Email this page to a friend
Bookmark this page using:
Find out more about social bookmarking.
These sites allow you to store, tag and share links across the internet. You can share these links both with friends and people with similar interests. You can also access your links from any computer you happen to be using.
If you come across a page on our site that you find interesting and want to save for future reference or share it with other people, simply click on one of these links to add to your list.
All of these sites are free to use but do require you to register. Once you have registered you can begin bookmarking. Each of the sites works slightly differently so use the links below to find out which service best suits your needs.
Find out more about social bookmarking at Wikipedia.
