Planning permission and building work in Brighton and Hove: what you need to know

Which authority decides

The council describes the National Park boundary as following the city boundary with Adur to the A27 and then generally the north side of the A27, dipping south at Foredown Ridge, Coney Hill, Hollingbury Hill and Coldean Wood. South of the A23, the land between Woodingdean and the coast is in the park, but Woodingdean, Ovingdean and Rottingdean themselves are not; Roedean School and St Dunstan's are in it, and the universities of Sussex and Brighton are not. The National Park Authority has a postcode check; because some postcodes straddle the boundary, it suggests contacting it directly if the result is unclear. An application made through the Planning Portal for a house in the park goes straight to the authority. The authority's planning enquiries page lists Brighton and Hove among its "recovered areas", where it deals with planning and enforcement itself, not through the council.

For planning histories, search the council's Planning Register, which holds current and historic applications, or the authority's planning applications search inside the park. What to look for is in how to read a planning history.

Conservation areas

The council's conservation areas page lists 34; most have a character statement, and each has a map. They include Kemp Town, Regency Square, Brunswick Town, North Laine, Montpelier and Clifton Hill, West Hill, Round Hill, Queen's Park, Preston Park, The Avenues, The Drive, Old Hove, Rottingdean, Ovingdean, Patcham and Stanmer. The page also has a street directory, A to Y, showing which streets fall wholly or partly in a conservation area. See living in a conservation area.

Article 4 directions

The council's Article 4 page says most of the city's directions protect the character of conservation areas. They usually apply only to single dwelling houses, since flats already have fewer rights, and most cover the elevations facing a street, footpath or open space; some also cover the rear and the garden. The typical effect is that permission is needed for new porches, replacement windows and doors, replacement roof coverings and painting the outside.

Heritage directions are listed for Kemp Town, Regency Square, North Laine, Preston Park, Round Hill, West Hill, The Avenues, Brunswick, Cliftonville and Denmark Villas, Pembroke and Princes, Queen's Park, Patcham, Rottingdean, Ovingdean, Portslade Old Village and Stanmer Village, and for individual squares and terraces such as Hanover Crescent, Park Crescent and Clifton Terrace. Another controls satellite dishes and other aerials. Each direction has its own page on the council's site.

The council lists two directions for change of use. One requires permission everywhere in the city to change a house into a small house in multiple occupation, a control that took effect on 3 June 2020 in the wards not already covered since 5 April 2013. The other, from 10 February 2023, removes the Class MA right to change commercial, business and service premises (Class E) to homes in specified parts of the city, in an area modified by the Secretary of State. How directions work is in Article 4 directions, and replacement windows in particular in windows and doors in conservation areas and listed buildings.

Listed buildings and the local list

Search the National Heritage List for England to check whether a building is listed. The council keeps a Local List of Heritage Assets: the last review, completed in March 2023, added 22 entries, and the next is planned for 2028. The council's page is clear that local listing does not change when planning permission is needed; it means the asset's interest is weighed when an application is made.

The South Downs National Park

A National Park is article 2(3) land in the General Permitted Development Order (Schedule 1, Part 1, paragraph 1(e)), and so is every conservation area. One consequence is easy to miss: the larger single-storey rear extension, the 6 and 8 metre route with neighbour consultation, is written only for houses outside that land.

(g) for a dwellinghouse not on article 2(3) land nor on a site of special scientific interest, the enlarged part of the dwellinghouse would have a single storey and: (i) extend beyond the rear wall of the original dwellinghouse by more than 8 metres in the case of a detached dwellinghouse, or 6 metres in the case of any other dwellinghouse, or (ii) exceed 4 metres in height;

So in the park, and in Kemp Town or any other conservation area in the city, a single-storey rear extension under permitted development stops at 4 metres for a detached house and 3 metres for any other (paragraph A.1(f)). The same land status removes side extensions, rear extensions of more than one storey and cladding (paragraph A.2), roof enlargements under Class B (paragraph B.1(f)) and, in the park but not in a conservation area, outbuildings totalling more than 10 square metres beyond 20 metres of the house (paragraph E.2). National planning data shows no National Landscape or World Heritage Site in the city.

CIL

The council adopted its CIL charging schedule on 5 October 2020 and began charging the same day. Its CIL page gives these residential rates indexed to 2026: £209.58 per square metre in zone 1, £179.64 in zone 2 and £89.82 in zone 3, with nil rates on some large development sites. Inside the National Park the National Park Authority is the charging authority; its rate for permissions granted in 2026 in its zone 2, which covers all of the park outside Lewes, Liss, Midhurst, Petersfield and Petworth, is £278.75 per square metre. In either case an extension under 100 square metres that creates no new dwelling is not liable (CIL Regulations 2010, regulation 42). See CIL on an extension.

Design guidance for householders

• SPD12: Design Guide for Extensions and Alterations, approved for adoption on 16 January 2020.
• SPD09: Architectural Features, and SPGBH 2: External Paint Finishes and Colours (adopted October 1998), both named by the council as relevant in conservation areas.
• SPD14: Parking Standards.
• The biodiversity checklist in SPD11, a validation requirement for relevant applications since November 2022, with separate guidance for householders.

The SPDs are listed on the council's SPD page and SPGBH 2 on its supplementary guidance notes page.

Planning data coverage

Neither authority has supplied its own conservation area or Article 4 data to planning.data.gov.uk. The government's provider dashboard shows the council's Article 4 direction and Article 4 direction area data as not submitted, and marks the 34 conservation area records the platform holds for the city as not from an authoritative source; the entry for the National Park Authority reads the same. A national postcode checker that relies on this data will not show Brighton and Hove's Article 4 directions. Use the council's street directory and the direction pages instead.

What this means for you

• First establish whether your house is in the National Park, because that decides who you apply to.
• In a conservation area, check the Article 4 list before replacing windows, doors or roof coverings or repainting the front.
• If you are unsure whether a change needs permission, a lawful development certificate settles it.

Parallel in Brighton and Hove

Parallel Architecture works across Brighton and Hove. Projects here:

• The Set, Brighton

For a view on a particular house or site, see the planning potential review or get in touch.