Ecclesiastical exemption and listed building consent

Ecclesiastical exemption means that works to a listed church building in use for ecclesiastical purposes do not need listed building consent from the council. Instead the denomination runs its own consent system, approved for the purpose, and the council has no role in those works at all. The exemption comes from section 60 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990, and its scope is set by the Ecclesiastical Exemption (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (England) Order 2010.

What it does not do is exempt a church from planning permission. That distinction accounts for most of the confusion, and it is the thing to be clear about before writing to anyone.

Which denominations have it

The exemption is available only where a denomination operates an approved internal control system. In England those are the Church of England, the Roman Catholic Church, the Methodist Church, the Baptist Union of Great Britain together with the Baptist Union of Wales, and the United Reformed Church.

Every other denomination and faith is in the ordinary listed building consent system. A listed independent chapel, a listed synagogue, a listed mosque in a converted listed building: all need listed building consent from the local planning authority in the normal way.

That surprises people, and it is worth checking before assuming a set of works has escaped scrutiny. The starting point is the National Heritage List for England entry, which tells you whether the building is listed and at what grade, and the denomination, which tells you which system applies. Neither takes more than a few minutes to establish.

What the exemption covers, and what it does not

It covers works of alteration, extension and partial demolition to an ecclesiastical building in use for ecclesiastical purposes, to the extent that those works would otherwise need listed building consent.

It does not cover:

• Planning permission. An extension, a new hall, a car park, a change of use or a mast on the tower all need planning permission in the ordinary way.
• Total demolition of a listed church building.
• A building used or available for use wholly or mainly as a residence for a minister of religion, so vicarages and rectories are outside it.
• Scheduled monument consent, which is a separate regime under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979.
• Buildings in the curtilage that are not themselves used for ecclesiastical purposes, which can include a church hall in independent community use.
• Works to trees protected by a Tree Preservation Order or in a conservation area.

So a parish proposing a new toilet block attached to a listed church is dealing with two processes at once: the denomination's own consent for the works to the church fabric, and a planning application to the council for the extension.

The faculty system in the Church of England

The largest of the approved systems is the Church of England's faculty jurisdiction, administered diocese by diocese under rules made for the purpose.

Works are sorted into three broad categories. A list of minor matters can be carried out without any permission, subject to conditions. A second list requires the written consent of the archdeacon. Anything else needs a faculty, granted by the diocesan chancellor sitting as a judge of the consistory court.

A faculty petition goes first to the Diocesan Advisory Committee for advice. Where works affect the character of a listed church, Historic England, the Church Buildings Council and the national amenity societies are consulted. Public notice is then displayed at the church and on the diocesan website for a set period, and anyone may object and become a party to the proceedings.

The other approved denominations run comparable committee-based systems, with historic churches committees advising on works to listed buildings.

The system is not a lighter form of scrutiny. A consistory court hearing on a contested faculty is a formal judicial process, with evidence and a reasoned written judgment, and chancellors regularly refuse works that a council might have permitted. What differs is who decides and where objections go, not how seriously the heritage question is taken.

How to find out about and comment on works

For a Church of England building, the public notice on the church door and the diocesan online faculty system are the route. The notice states what is proposed and how long there is to object, and objections go to the diocesan registry rather than to the council.

For works needing planning permission as well, the council's planning register carries the application in the ordinary way and neighbours are consulted as usual.

Where the works involve loss of historic fabric, a Heritage Statement describing the significance of the affected fabric and assessing the effect on it is what any of these processes will expect, and it is a reasonable thing for an objector to ask whether one has been produced. Where fabric will be lost permanently, recording it first is standard practice, and Historic Building Recording to Historic England levels 1 to 4 is the usual scale.

Below-ground works in and around a church almost always raise archaeology, because churchyards contain burials and older structures. An Archaeological Desk-Based Assessment is the starting point, and the diocesan archaeologist or the county archaeologist will normally advise.

Burials add a further layer. Disturbing human remains engages separate legal requirements around exhumation and reinterment, quite apart from planning or faculty, and any scheme involving groundworks in a churchyard should establish that position before a programme is written.

Illustrative example: a parish wants to remove pews from the nave, install underfloor heating and build a small extension for a kitchen and lavatory. Pew removal and the heating installation fall within the faculty system. The extension needs planning permission from the council as well, because ecclesiastical exemption does not reach planning. Two processes, two sets of consultees, one project.

What happens when a church closes

The exemption depends on the building being in use for ecclesiastical purposes. Once that use ends the exemption falls away and the ordinary listed building consent regime applies.

For Church of England buildings, closure for regular public worship follows a statutory process under church legislation, with consultation and a right to make representations, after which the building may be found a new use, vested in a preservation body, or in rare cases demolished. From the moment of closure, alterations need listed building consent from the council in the normal way.

That is the point at which local objectors and amenity societies acquire the rights they did not have before, and it is worth knowing which side of that line a particular building sits on before deciding where to direct a comment.

A closed church that finds a new use also picks up everything else the planning system applies to a change of use: parking and access, neighbour amenity, and the effect of any subdivision on the interior. Those are all matters the council decides, and all matters on which anyone may comment through the planning register in the usual way.

This is general guidance, not legal advice; check the position with the diocese, the denomination's own consent body or your local planning authority before relying on it.