Conservation area consent and demolition control

Conservation area consent no longer exists in England. It was abolished in 2013, and demolition in a conservation area is now controlled through planning permission instead. The change of label matters less than the change of consequence: carrying out relevant demolition without permission is a criminal offence under section 196D of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, punishable by an unlimited fine and, on indictment, imprisonment.

For a landlord or investor buying an unlisted building in a conservation area with a view to redeveloping the site, that offence is the reason to establish the position before contracts rather than afterwards.

How demolition control works after 2013

Before October 2013, demolishing an unlisted building in a conservation area required conservation area consent under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990.

The Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 removed that separate consent in England and folded the control into the planning system. Demolition of an unlisted building in a conservation area is now development requiring planning permission, and the application is made and determined like any other.

Two things survived the change and are worth holding onto.

The assessment is still a heritage assessment. The council considers the contribution the building makes to the character or appearance of the conservation area, and applies national heritage policy to any harm the loss would cause.

The criminal sanction survived too, and in a stronger form. Section 196D creates a specific offence of carrying out or causing relevant demolition without the required planning permission.

Listed buildings are unaffected by all of this. Demolition of a listed building, in whole or in part, requires listed building consent whether or not the building sits in a conservation area.

What counts as relevant demolition

Relevant demolition means the demolition of an unlisted building in a conservation area, other than buildings excluded by direction.

The word doing the work is "building". Total demolition is plainly caught. Partial demolition is the grey area, and the practical test the courts and councils apply is whether what is proposed amounts to the demolition of a building rather than an alteration to it.

Taking down a rear outrigger, removing a chimney stack, stripping a facade back to the frame: each of these has been argued both ways. The safe course on any substantial removal is to include the works in a planning application for the whole scheme and describe them accurately, so that the permission covers what you intend to do.

Demolition of the whole of a building down to slab level, followed by rebuilding, is demolition however it is described in the marketing.

Note also that permitted development for demolition under the General Permitted Development Order, which allows demolition subject to a prior approval on method and site restoration, does not extend to relevant demolition in a conservation area.

Structures that fall outside the control

A direction excludes certain categories from the requirement, and these are the exclusions that come up most often.

Buildings with a total cubic content not exceeding 115 cubic metres. That takes small outbuildings, garden stores and many single garages out of control entirely.

Gates, walls, fences and other means of enclosure less than one metre high where they abut a highway, including a public footpath or bridleway, a waterway or open space. Elsewhere the figure is two metres.

Certain buildings erected since a stated date under a temporary permission, and buildings required to be demolished by a statutory duty or by a notice served under the Building Act 1984.

Two cautions. The exclusions are for demolition control only. Building a replacement still needs whatever permission the replacement requires, and in a conservation area that includes a proper design assessment. And a boundary wall that reads as part of the historic street scene may be protected by an Article 4 direction even where it falls under the height figure, so check the direction as well as the exclusion list.

The separate notice under the Building Act

Demolition control under planning is not the only requirement, and the second one catches people who have correctly obtained planning permission.

Section 80 of the Building Act 1984 requires notice to be given to the local authority before demolishing a building, subject to exceptions for small structures. The authority then has a period in which it may serve a counter-notice under section 81 specifying requirements about shoring adjoining buildings, weatherproofing exposed surfaces, sealing services, removing rubbish and making the site safe.

That notice period runs in parallel with nothing. It is a separate clock, it applies whether or not the building is in a conservation area, and starting demolition without it is an offence in its own right.

Serve it as soon as the planning position is settled. Six weeks lost at the front of a demolition programme is expensive in a way that is entirely avoidable.

The six week tree notice

Trees in a conservation area have their own regime, and it operates whether or not any Tree Preservation Order exists.

Section 211 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 requires six weeks' written notice to the local planning authority before carrying out most works to a tree in a conservation area. The purpose of the notice is to give the council the opportunity to make an order.

The exemptions turn on size. Trees below a stated stem diameter measured at 1.5 metres above ground level are excluded, with a slightly larger figure where the work is thinning to improve the growth of other trees. Dead trees and work to remove an immediate risk of serious harm are also exempt, subject to notice requirements.

Site clearance is where this goes wrong. A contractor who clears self-seeded growth from the rear of a site before the notice period expires has committed an offence, and the fact that the trees were scruffy is not a defence. Survey the site and serve the notice before anyone starts.

Evidence needed to justify demolition

A council assessing demolition asks first whether the building makes a positive contribution to the character or appearance of the conservation area.

Where it does, loss of the whole building is a serious matter and the harm tests in national heritage policy apply. That means either the substantial harm route with its narrow justifications, or the less than substantial harm route where the harm is weighed against the public benefits of the proposal.

The evidence pack that works has four parts. A Heritage Statement assessing the significance of the building and its contribution to the area, drawing on the conservation area appraisal where one exists. A structural report where condition is relied on, prepared by an engineer and dealing with repairability and cost rather than simply describing defects. A full scheme for what replaces the building, because a cleared gap is worse than the building in almost every case. And an offer of recording.

That last item is standard. A Historic Building Recording to the appropriate level preserves information about what is lost, and it is normally secured by condition before demolition begins. It mitigates the loss of information. It does not reduce the harm to the conservation area.

Condition-based arguments need care. A building allowed to deteriorate by its owner will not attract sympathy, and councils are alert to the pattern.

Conditions, offences and enforcement

Where permission is granted, expect a condition preventing demolition until a contract for the redevelopment works has been entered into. That condition exists precisely to prevent the cleared gap, and it is drafted tightly.

Expect also a recording condition, a condition requiring the retention and reuse of specified materials, and hoarding and site management requirements.

Where demolition happens without permission, the council can prosecute under section 196D and can serve an enforcement notice requiring the building to be rebuilt. Rebuilding notices are rare and they are not impossible.

The realistic risk for an investor is simpler. An unauthorised demolition on a site makes the redevelopment application far harder to win, because the council is now deciding a scheme on a cleared site without the building it wanted to protect. That is a worse negotiating position than the one you started with.

You can browse all 66 PlanScope report types to see which documents a conservation area redevelopment needs, or enter your postcode to check the designations on the site.

This is general guidance, not legal advice. Check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.