Planning permission
Do you need planning permission for a driveway?
- Covers
- driveway, drive, front garden paving, parking space, hardstanding, block paving, tarmac drive, resin drive, gravel drive, patio
- The law
- GPDO 2015, Schedule 2, Part 1, Class F (paragraph F.2)
- Applies to
- England
Short answer
Usually not, for a house in England. Class F of Part 1 of the General Permitted Development Order grants permission for a hard surface anywhere within the curtilage of a house, for a purpose incidental to it, and for replacing one. There is one condition. If the surface is between the front wall of the house and a highway and covers more than 5 square metres, it must either be made of porous materials or drain to a permeable or porous area within your own land.
An impermeable drive of more than 5 square metres in front of the house that sheds water onto the road needs planning permission. Getting a car across the pavement is a separate consent from the highway authority: see dropped kerbs.
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The condition
F.2 Development is permitted by Class F subject to the condition that where: (a) the hard surface would be situated on land between a wall forming the principal elevation of the dwellinghouse and a highway, and (b) the area of ground covered by the hard surface, or the area of hard surface replaced, would exceed 5 square metres, either the hard surface is made of porous materials, or provision is made to direct run-off water from the hard surface to a permeable or porous area or surface within the curtilage of the dwellinghouse.
Read the two tests together:
- Where it is. The condition applies only between the principal elevation and a highway. For Part 1, "highway" includes an unadopted street or a private way (paragraph I), so a private road counts. A drive or patio behind the house is not caught.
- How big it is. It is the area laid or replaced that counts. Relaying 4 square metres of an old drive is under the threshold; relaying the whole of it is not.
A worked example
A front garden 6 metres deep and 5 metres wide gives 30 square metres of drive. That is well over 5 square metres, so the condition applies.
| Surface | Where the rain goes | Planning position |
|---|---|---|
| Tarmac or close-jointed paving | Falls to the road | Needs planning permission |
| Tarmac or close-jointed paving | Falls to a channel draining to a lawn, border or soakaway in the garden | Permitted under Class F |
| Permeable block paving, porous asphalt or gravel | Soaks through | Permitted under Class F |
The government's guidance on paving front gardens (2009) gives gravel, permeable concrete block paving and porous asphalt as porous options, and rain gardens and soakaways as ways to take water from a solid surface. Its £150 application fee is long out of date: see planning fees and timescales for current figures.
When Class F does not apply
- Flats and maisonettes have no Part 1 rights: see flats and maisonettes.
- A house created by a change of use under Part 3 (Classes G, M, MA, N, P, PA or Q) or built under Part 20 has no Class F rights (paragraph F.1).
- An article 4 direction, or a condition on the planning permission for your house (article 3(4) of the Order), can remove the right.
- Class F itself has no separate limit for conservation areas or listed buildings.
A new access onto the road is not a hard surface. Part 2, Class B covers forming an access, but not onto a trunk or classified road, and the crossing over the pavement is a matter for the highway authority. The permitted development checker takes you through the Class F tests.
Getting certainty
If your drainage design is unusual, or the area is near the threshold, a lawful development certificate under section 192 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 confirms the proposal is permitted development. The council has 8 weeks to decide. See lawful development certificates.
Sources
- GPDO 2015, Schedule 2, Part 1 (Class F) legislation.gov.uk
- GPDO 2015, Schedule 2, Part 2 (Class B) legislation.gov.uk
- Guidance on the permeable surfacing of front gardens, May 2009 gov.uk
- Permitted development rights for householders: technical guidance, September 2019 gov.uk
- Town and Country Planning Act 1990, section 192 legislation.gov.uk