Advice for householders

This is the edge of the area of enclosed space surrounding the house. For example, a wall or fence between houses or gardens, or the wall of an adjoining building.

Please note that this is not a legal definition and a determination as to what constitutes the boundary may be made by Cambridge City or South Cambridgeshire Council.

You may also see the term ‘curtilage’ used on the Planning Portal instead of ‘boundary’.

You don’t need planning permission if you propose to:

• take down a fence, wall, or gate
• alter, maintain, or improve an existing fence, wall, or gate (no matter how high) if you don't increase its height

You will need planning permission to erect a new boundary wall, fence, railings, or gate that:

• is over one metre high and is next to a road used by vehicles (or the footpath of one)
• exceeds 2 metres high elsewhere 

Loft conversions which do not include any extension to the existing roof, just internal conversion, do not require planning permission. 

Please do note that this will need a Building Regulations application. To find out how to submit this, please use the Cambridge City Council Building Control or the South Cambridgeshire Council Building Control.

Please refer to the information and miniguide on the Planning Portal.

If extensions fall outside of that criteria, then planning permission is required.

The planning rules for porches are applicable to any external door.

Adding a porch to any external door of your house is considered to be permitted development, not requiring an application for planning permission, provided:

1. the ground floor area (measured externally) would not exceed 3 square metres.
2. no part would be more than three metres above ground level (height needs to be measured in the same way as for a house extension).
3. no part of the porch would be within two metres of any boundary of the house and the highway.

Please note the permitted development allowances described here apply to houses and not to:

• Flats and maisonettes (view guidance from Planning Portal on flats and maisonettes)
• Converted houses or houses created through the ‘permitted development’ rights for:

• ‘Changes of use’ (Schedule 2, Part 3, Classes G; M; MA; N; P; PA and Q) (as detailed in Planning Portal’s change of use section)
• ‘New houses’ (Schedule 2, Part 20)
• Other buildings

• Areas where there may be a planning condition, Article 4 Direction or other restriction that limits permitted development rights.

Outbuildings can include summer houses, garden rooms, sheds, playhouses, greenhouses, garages, sauna cabins, kennels, storage structures, tennis court enclosures, gyms, home offices, cinema rooms, etc.

Outbuildings are considered permitted development, subject to the following limits and conditions:

• No outbuilding on land forward of a wall forming the principal elevation.
• Outbuildings and garages to be single storey with maximum eaves height of 2.5 metres and maximum overall height of four metres with a dual pitched roof or three metres for any other roof.
• Maximum height of 2.5 metres in the case of a building, enclosure, or container within 2 metres of a boundary of a property.
• No verandas, balconies or raised platforms (a platform may be erected up to 0.3 metres in height without planning permission).
• No more than half the area of land around the original house would be covered by additions or other buildings (the term ‘original house’ means the house as it stood when first built. If the house was built before 1 July 1948, the term means as the house stood on the 1 July 1948).

It is important to note that if the building can enable separate occupation (for example, a granny annex), this will not fall under permitted development and planning permission will be required.

If the building is an apartment, then planning permission will be required.

Please also refer to the information and miniguide on the Planning Portal.

You will need planning permission to install flues, pipes, and chimneys in a flat.

It might fall under permitted development if the proposal is not 1 meter higher than the highest part of the roof of the house.

To check if your proposed works fall under these rights, you can apply for a Lawful Development Certificate.

If your house is within a conservation area you’ll likely need permission. For instance, if the proposal affects the side or front elevation of the house.

Lots of households paving over their front gardens adds to the risk of surface water flooding. In response, the Government has placed limits on what households can do.

For flats: you will need to apply for full planning permission to create any hard-standing surface.

For houses: you will need to make a householder application for any of the following:

• if the proposal exceeds 5m2
• if the hard surface will be made of non-porous materials
• if no provision will be made to direct run-off water to a permeable or porous area within land around the original house.

Further guidance can be found on the Planning Portal.

Please note that if you are planning to pave over your garden in order to park a vehicle you will need to provide a dropped kerb. You may need planning permission for this if:

• the property has the frontage directly onto a classified road.
• the property is a listed building
• the property is other than a house for a single-family, for example, a flat or maisonette 
• the property is in a conservation area

You will also need permission from the County Council’s Highways Team, and you will need to enter into a conditional legal agreement.

Please note that a standard car parking space should measure 2.5 metres by 5 metres.

You will not need to apply for planning permission if you wish to erect a new; or alter, maintain, improve or take down an existing fence, wall or gate if the following conditions are met.

In regard to its height:

• It is next to a highway used by vehicles (or the footpath of such a highway) and it would not exceed one metre in height (from ground level); or
• It would not exceed 2 metres in height (from ground level) if elsewhere; or
• If an existing fence, wall or gate already exceeds the limits above, that its height would not be increased.
• No part of the site is a listed building or within the curtilage of a listed building.
• No part of the fence, wall, gate, or any other boundary involved, forms a boundary with a neighbouring listed building or its curtilage.
• The right to put up or alter fences, walls and gates has not been removed by an article 4 direction or a planning condition.

If any of these conditions are not met, then you will need to apply for planning permission.

You do not need planning permission for hedges, though if a planning condition or a covenant restricts planting (for example, on "open plan" estates, or where a driver's sight line could be blocked) you may need planning permission and/or other consent.

Dropped kerbs can be developed without the need for planning permission provided the road is categorised as ‘unclassified’.

To check the status of your road, or to apply for consent, please read the the Cambridgeshire County Council's dropped kerb guidance page.

If your road is classified A, B or C on the mapping system accessed via the link above, once you have obtained consent from Cambridgeshire County Council you must apply for planning permission.

You do not need to apply for planning permission for repairs, maintenance or minor improvements, such as painting your house.

If you live in a listed building, you will need listed building consent for any significant works whether internal or external.

If you live in a Conservation Area, a National Park, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty or the Broads, you will need to apply for planning permission before cladding the outside of your house with stone, artificial stone, pebble dash, render, timber, plastic or tiles.

Outside these areas, cladding may be carried out without having to first apply for planning permission provided the materials are of a similar appearance to those used in the construction of the house.

Planning permission is not usually required. The following criteria need to be met however:

• the work is internal only
• the garage will not be enlarged
• if a garage door needs to be replaced by a window the window must be of similar appearance and finish to those already used on the house and is flush with the wall (for example, not a bay window).

Any further work beyond that stated above would need planning permission. If your intention is to convert a garage into a separate living accommodation (for example, a granny annex), then planning permission will be required.

On some developments use of garages as additional living accommodation is restricted by conditions on previous planning permissions. You can check previous planning permissions on your property via our database.

If you live in a flat or maisonette, you will need planning permission to change any windows or doors. 

In the case of houses, you don’t usually need planning permission unless your house is a listed building or subject to an Article 4 removing permitted development rights. You can check restrictions on your property on our Search by Map Page.

To check if your proposal is permitted development, you can apply for a Lawful Development Certificate. 

Check if you need planning permission for common business projects on the Planning Portal. 

You can change the use of a single dwelling (falling within C3 use) into a small HMO (C4 use) without the need for planning permission provided it meets the criteria below:

• Occupied by between 3 to 6 unrelated individuals where there are shared basic amenities such as a kitchen
• Does not change the use of 2 or more separate dwellings (C3 use) into one single HMO
• You can change the use of a single dwelling (falling within C3 use) into a small HMO (C4 use) without the need for planning permission provided it meets the below criteria:

For information on house classes (for example, C3, C4), see the Planning Portal.