Do I Need Planning Permission for an Extension in Burnley?

Permitted development: what you can usually build without applying

Permitted development is a national set of rights that lets you extend a house within fixed limits. It applies to houses, not to flats or maisonettes, and it applies to the original house as it stood in 1948 or as first built, not the house as you bought it. If a previous owner already added a rear extension, that eats into your allowance.

The main limits for a single storey rear extension are:

• Depth: up to 3m for a terraced or semi detached house, 4m for a detached house, measured from the original rear wall
• Height: no more than 4m overall, and no more than 3m at the eaves if any part sits within 2m of a boundary
• Coverage: extensions and outbuildings together must not cover more than half the land around the original house
• Position: nothing forward of the principal elevation facing a highway, which rules out most front extensions on Burnley's terraced streets
• Side extensions: single storey only, no wider than half the width of the original house
• Materials: similar in appearance to the existing house, which in practice means matching stone or a sympathetic render on older properties
• No verandas, balconies or raised platforms above 300mm

The larger extension route (prior approval)

If you want to go deeper, up to 6m on a terraced or semi and up to 8m on a detached house, there is a prior approval process with Burnley Borough Council. You submit details, the council notifies your adjoining neighbours, and they get 21 days to object on the grounds of impact on their amenity. If nobody objects, it is waved through. If somebody does, an officer decides whether the effect on light and outlook is acceptable.

It is quicker and cheaper than a full application, but it is not automatic, and on tightly packed terraced rows with small yards a 6m rear extension is a genuine ask. Have a sensible conversation with next door before you submit.

When you almost certainly do need to apply

Permitted development rights are removed or reduced in some situations, and several of these are common around Burnley and Padiham.

You will need a full householder planning application if the property is listed, if it sits in a conservation area and you are extending to the side or building a two storey rear extension, or if an Article 4 direction has removed rights on your street. Rights are also often stripped out by planning conditions on newer estates, so check the original permission for your house. Flats and converted properties have no permitted development rights at all.

• Listed buildings: listed building consent needed as well as planning permission
• Conservation areas: cladding, side extensions and two storey rear extensions are all restricted
• New build estates: check for conditions removing permitted development
• Anything above single storey to the side, or a rear extension over 3m on a two storey property within 7m of the rear boundary

Building regulations and party walls are separate

This is the single biggest misunderstanding we come across. Planning permission is about whether you can build it. Building regulations are about how it is built: foundations, damp proofing, insulation, structural openings, drainage, fire escape and ventilation. Every extension needs building control sign off, even a small one that needs no planning permission at all, and that sign off is what a solicitor will ask for when you sell.

If you are building up to or astride a shared boundary, or digging foundations within 3m of a neighbour's wall, the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 also applies. On Burnley's terraced and back to back stock that is the norm rather than the exception, so allow at least two months for notices before work starts.

A sensible order to do things in

Start by measuring what is already there and finding out whether any previous extension has used up part of your allowance. Then check your address on the council's planning map for conservation area and Article 4 status. If the answer looks like permitted development, it is worth applying for a Lawful Development Certificate anyway: it costs half a householder application fee, and it is proof for a future buyer.

Fees change, so check the current figures on the council site rather than relying on a number in an article. Budget a few hundred pounds for the application, plus drawings and a structural engineer's calculations where you are removing a rear wall. We are happy to look at a job and give you an honest view on which route applies before anyone commits to anything.