Most roof jobs never meet the planning system. A leak repaired, a ridge refixed or a gutter replaced changes nothing the council cares about. Trouble starts when a job alters how the house looks from outside, or when the house sits somewhere the ordinary rights have been taken away. Then a quick job on the roof can turn into an application, or into an enforcement letter years later.
The questions come in a fixed order. Is the work development at all? If it is, does a permitted development right cover it? If a right exists, has something removed it, such as a conservation area direction, a condition on an earlier permission or listed status? In Worthing and Adur the answers differ from street to street, which is why a Warwick Gardens flat and a bungalow in Durrington can get opposite answers for the same job.
Planning is separate from Building Regulations, which ask about safety and energy, and our roof regulations guide covers those. This page deals with planning permission alone, and what follows is general guidance rather than legal advice. The answer for your own address comes from the Adur & Worthing planning team.
Re-covering in matching materials
The law begins from a simple idea. Under Section 55(2)(a) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, maintenance, improvement or alteration work is not "development" when the outward look of the building stays materially as it was. Putting back like with like, clay tile for clay tile or slate for slate in the same colour and profile, normally fits inside that. A householder in Goring or Broadwater who re-covers a semi in the same tile does not usually need to ask the council.
Everything turns on the word materially. When a new covering changes the look of the house, the exemption stops being safe. Natural slate swapped for a concrete tile, red clay replaced by grey, or a plain ridge swapped for a decorative one can all alter the street scene enough that the council will want to see the plan. We cannot give you a ruling on appearance. The planning team can, and a short written reply is worth having before materials are ordered.
What sits on top of the rule
Four things can override the starting position. A listed building needs listed building consent for work touching its character. An Article 4 direction on your street may withdraw rights that would otherwise apply. A condition on an earlier planning permission can fix the roof materials, because the government's planning guidance says rights can be removed by condition on a permission. And the type of building matters: flats are treated differently from houses. The sections below take each in turn, starting with the rights that exist for roof windows and dormers.
Roof windows and other roof alterations
Part 1 of Schedule 2 to the General Permitted Development Order 2015 gives houses a set of rights. Class C is the catch-all for other roof alterations to a house, which makes it the right behind most roof windows and rooflights. It carries limits. The alteration may not project more than 0.15 metres from the face of the original slope, and it must not poke above the top line of the original roof.
Class C also keeps out some work altogether. The right does not cover chimneys, flues or soil and vent pipes, and solar panels sit outside it as well, whether photovoltaic or thermal, so each of those has to be considered under other rules. And it is conditional. A window on a side-facing slope has two conditions: it needs obscured glass in every case, and it has to be fixed shut unless its openable parts sit more than 1.7 metres above the floor inside. Height relaxes only the second condition, and obscured glass is needed on every side-slope window whatever the height.
Conservation areas and the National Park
Class C has no bar on land such as conservation areas or the South Downs National Park, so it can apply there unless an Article 4 direction, a planning condition or listed status takes it away. Several local directions do, as the fourth section sets out. For a roof window the practical sequence is therefore to check the street's status first, then the 0.15 metre and height limits, then the side-slope condition. The Building Regulations Table 4.2 limits for the glazing are a different matter. Our skylight planning permission guide works through the detail, and the roof windows page describes the product side.
Dormers and roof additions
A dormer is a different order of change, because it adds volume and shape to the roof. Class B of the same Order allows additions to the roof of a house, within limits. No part of the addition may be higher than the highest part of the existing roof. Nothing may project past the plane of an existing roof slope where that slope forms the principal elevation and faces a highway. The added volume is capped at 40 cubic metres for a terraced house and 50 cubic metres for any other house. A verandah, balcony or raised platform is excluded, and so are chimneys, flues and soil pipes.
Class B comes with its own conditions. The materials should be of a similar appearance to the existing house, the edge of the enlargement should sit, so far as practicable, at least 0.2 metres back from the eaves, and a window in the side of the addition needs obscured glass and has to stay shut unless its openable parts are over 1.7 metres above the floor.
The line that decides most cases
The condition that decides most cases is the first one. Class B does not apply if the house stands on article 2(3) land, which includes a conservation area and a National Park. In practice a dormer in a conservation area or the South Downs National Park cannot go ahead under Class B and needs a planning application. A loft conversion on a terraced house in Heene or an inter-war semi in a conservation-area street meets that line before any measurement of cubic metres begins. Our dormer roofs page covers how they are built.
Remember also that a dormer needs Building Regulations approval, which is a separate application with its own tests for structure, escape and insulation.
Conservation areas, Article 4 directions and what each removes
Article 2(3) land includes conservation areas, National Parks, the Broads, World Heritage Sites and areas of outstanding natural beauty. Worthing has 27 designated conservation areas and Adur has seven, so a good many roofs in both towns stand on it. Being in one does not prohibit re-roofing. What counts is whether the council has also made an Article 4 direction, which the government's guidance describes as a tool for a local planning authority to take named permitted development rights away within a set boundary. The councils stress that a direction is not a ban: it puts the listed matters through the planning system.
| Direction | Roof-relevant rights it removes |
|---|---|
| Old Shoreham (in force 20 January 2023) | Class C, including roof coverings and rooflights, on houses facing onto a road or public path; chimney, flue and soil pipe alterations anywhere on the property |
| Kingston Buci (in force 10 February 2023) | The same pattern as Old Shoreham |
| Warwick Gardens, Worthing (made 29 March 2001) | Chimney erection, alteration or removal; changing the form or finish of a roof slope on a house that looks onto a road or open ground |
| Warwick Place, Worthing (made 20 August 1997) | Class C for dwellings fronting Warwick Place |
| Western Row, Worthing (made 1 December 1978) | Recorded as removing all dwellinghouse permitted development rights |
The Adur directions also bite on the street-facing slopes, which are the ones people notice. Not every direction on the councils' list touches roofs, so look up your own street on the list, and put any older direction to the planning team before relying on a right.
Flats, listed buildings, churches and the National Park
A flat has no Part 1 rights at all. Under the Order, a dwellinghouse leaves out any building containing flats and any flat within one, which means Class B and Class C do not apply to those homes. A roof window over a top-floor flat, or a new covering that changes the look of a block, therefore needs a different route. Ask the planning team, and read your lease for the freeholder's position.
Listed buildings are in a separate system. Under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990, works that affect a listed building's character need consent, and carrying them out unauthorised is a criminal offence. Adur and Worthing's guide cites repairs done in other materials as an example. The South Downs National Park Authority is clear that everyday maintenance and minor repairs in the same materials, done in place, do not need consent, while repairs that change or fully replace original material do.
Churches, monuments and the Park
A listed church used for worship by Roman Catholics, Methodists, the Baptist Union, the United Reformed Church or the Church of England comes under the ecclesiastical exemption, and uses the denomination's own approval system in place of listed building consent. Other faiths do not share that exemption, closed churches lose it, and scheduled monuments always need scheduled monument consent. In the Adur and Worthing part of the National Park, planning decisions belong to the Park Authority rather than the councils, and that includes Castle Goring and Highdown. Park status alone does not remove Class C, but it does rule out dormers under Class B.
Checking before you commit, and what happens afterwards
A short check beforehand costs far less than a correction afterwards. Begin with the planning history of the address, which shows any conditions on earlier permissions. Then establish whether the property is a listed building, lies in a conservation area or the National Park, or stands in an Article 4 street. If any of these is true, email the Adur & Worthing planning team at planning@adur-worthing.gov.uk with a short description and ask for the reply in writing. Keep it with the house papers. Our own part is to explain what applies to your roof and to say so on the quote if consent is likely to be needed.
Planning is not the only approval, and having one does not stand in for the other. Building Regulations approval, where work is notifiable, is a separate step. Timing matters too, because an application takes weeks and a leaking roof cannot wait. Making a roof safe is one thing and altering its appearance is another: a leaking roof gets made safe first, whereas any change to how it looks is a planning question.
Older alterations and house purchases
If a previous owner altered the roof without permission, time can protect it from enforcement. Building work completed before 25 April 2024 was protected from enforcement once four years had passed, while work completed from that date forward gets a ten-year period. Immunity from enforcement is not Building Regulations approval, and it does not make a dormer safe. Our home page shows how we survey and quote. Buyers should read roof checks to make before you exchange, and anyone claiming after storm damage should see whether home insurance covers roof damage.
