Loft Conversion

NOTE: This guidance applies only until 1 October 2008 when new permitted development rules and conditions come into force.

You need to apply for planning permission when:

• You intend to extend the roof and your house lies within a Conservation Area, a National Park, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty or the Broads.
• The work would make some part of the house higher than the highest part of the existing roof.
• The dormer or other addition you want to build would extend beyond the plane of any existing roof slope facing the highway.
• A roof extension would add more than 40 cubic metres to the volume of a terraced house or more than 50 cubic metres to any other kind of house.

Additional volume created by an extension – including roof extensions - will count against the total volume limit for your house. For example, if you have already extended your house – and that includes conservatories - you may have already used up your volume extension limits.

View further information on volume limits.