Roof work in the South Downs National Park: who decides?

1Why the Park authority, not the council

The SDNPA describes its Planning Committee as the statutory planning authority of the National Park. For part of the Park that means the Authority itself takes applications and deals with enforcement. Where the Park lies within the recovered areas, the SDNPA handles planning and enforcement in place of the district or borough council.

Among the places on the Authority's list of recovered areas are Brighton and Hove, Horsham, Arun, and Adur and Worthing, with others besides. For the delegated areas, the local council acts on the Authority's behalf, and the SDNPA's own page tells you whom to contact. No count of authorities is given here, because the Authority's own pages give different totals.

Your first job is to work out which body holds your address. If your home is in the part of Worthing or Adur that lies within the Park, the planning team at the town hall is not the body that decides. Two of Worthing's 27 conservation areas, Castle Goring and Highdown, are in the Authority's hands for planning purposes.

2What Park status changes for a roof

Land in a National Park is article 2(3) land, the same category as a conservation area. That alters some rights and leaves others alone, so it is easiest to take them one at a time.

Planning permission is generally not needed for a like-for-like re-roof, inside the boundary or outside it, because work that keeps the house looking as it did is not classed as development. Building Regulations are untouched by Park status: your roof faces the same thresholds as anywhere else in England.

Roof windows come under Class C, which carries no exclusion for article 2(3) land. They can therefore stay permitted development in the Park, subject to conditions, unless a direction or planning condition withdraws the right or the building is listed. The detail sits in our skylights and roof windows service, which is worth a read before a window is ordered.

Dormers are different. A dormer is a roof addition falling under Class B, and Class B does not extend to a dwellinghouse on article 2(3) land. Inside the Park, even a modest dormer has to go through a planning application.

3Listed buildings and older cottages in the Park

Some older Park houses are listed, and listing adds a second layer of control over everything above. The SDNPA says regular upkeep and minor repairs carried out in situ, with like for like materials, need no consent. Once a repair involves alterations, or removing historic parts of the building altogether, and the character of the house would suffer, consent will be needed.

For a roofer the gap between those two sentences is the whole job. Patching with matching tiles may count as maintenance. Replacing a stone-slate or clay-tile roof with something different changes the character. The Authority adds that enforcement against unauthorised listed building works has no four-year cut-off, so a mistake does not fade with time.

For listed building questions within its planning areas, the Authority is where to begin. Photographs of the existing covering, a short description of the work and the address will help it reply, and a note of the current covering helps it judge whether a repair is like for like. Where your home is also in a village conservation area, read the appraisal alongside; our answer on conservation areas in Worthing and Adur sets out the Article 4 position for the towns.

4Who to contact, and what about building control

For a planning question about a roof inside the Park, start with the South Downs National Park Authority. Its planning pages list general enquiries and the councils that deal with delegated areas. If you are unsure your address is inside the boundary, ask the Authority before you ask the council.

Building control is a separate matter: inside the Park it stays with the district or borough council, not the Park Authority. Ask the council or a registered building control approver; building control in Adur and Worthing explains the shared team and the private route.

Two habits help, and neither costs anything. Keep every reply you receive and give a copy to the roofer so the quote matches what was agreed. And never let anyone start a dormer on the strength of a phone call; get the decision in writing. Our guide to how to spot a dodgy roofer includes work that begins before consent is in place. Scaffolding on the street needs its own licence, covered in scaffold licences in West Sussex, and VAT on roofing work is worth a look before you compare quotes.

The Watertight Worthing Roofing home page shows how our survey and written quote work.