Planning guide
Rooflight planning permission: houses, flats and listed homes
Planning permission for a rooflight is not one rule. It turns on the sort of home the window is going into, because a house, a flat, a house under an Article 4 direction and a listed house each follow a different route.
The first sorting question: house or flat?
Houses can use a national permission for rooflights. Flats cannot, and both homes in a Tyneside flat building count as flats, and the council has to approve any new rooflight before it goes in.
Planning law starts from the building, not from the rooflight. Before anyone discusses glass, frames or sizes, the question is whether your home counts as a house in planning terms or as a flat or maisonette. Every later answer follows from that one.
Houses
Terraces, semis, detached houses and new-build houses are all houses. They carry householder permitted development rights, which are national permissions that let certain small jobs go ahead without an application. One of them, Class C, covers rooflights, and the next chapter sets out its limits.
Flats and maisonettes
Flats and maisonettes have no householder permitted development. That is a rule about the type of building, so it holds whether the flat sits in a purpose-built block, above a shop or inside a Victorian terrace. On Tyneside the best-known case is the Tyneside flat, a two-storey terrace that is really an upstairs home and a downstairs home, each with its own front door on the street. Both are flats. Either one must apply to the council before a new rooflight goes in.
Why the house type comes before the product
When we meet a homeowner, we fix the type of home before we talk about products or sizes, because it decides the route, the paperwork and the order of events. Our page on looking at the house before the rooflight explains how that shapes a survey. Who decides what, case by case:
Which house is yours?
Upstairs flat
- Who decides
- The upstairs owner submits the application, and the lease may bring the downstairs owner in before any roof work begins.
- Which rules apply
- No householder permitted development. Planning permission is needed for a new rooflight, and the work is notified to Building Control.
Downstairs flat
- Who decides
- The downstairs flat owner applies, but the roof over your flat may be covered by the same title or lease wording as the upstairs one.
- Which rules apply
- No householder permitted development, so planning permission is needed. Read the lease first, then notify Building Control.
House
- Who decides
- The homeowner. The deeds may hold covenants, and the planning history may hold conditions from an earlier permission.
- Which rules apply
- Class C permitted development if the limits are met, unless an Article 4 direction or a condition removes it. Building Control is notified.
What a house is allowed to fit without an application
A rooflight on a house is permitted if it projects no more than 150mm beyond the roof slope and sits no higher than the highest part of the roof. Side slopes add a glazing condition.
The permission sits in the General Permitted Development Order, Schedule 2, Part 1, Class C. It covers any other alteration to the roof of a house, which is where a rooflight falls. Two limits apply to every rooflight, and a third condition applies on one side of the building.
The two limits
- The rooflight projects no more than 150mm beyond the plane of the roof slope.
- It sits no higher than the highest part of the roof.
A roof window bedded into the slope of a pitched roof lies close to the covering, so the projection limit is usually easy to meet. Measurements are taken on the finished installation, so the frame and flashing count as well as the glass.
Rooflights on a side slope
Under Class C, on a side-elevation roof slope, the whole window must be obscure-glazed. It must also be non-opening, unless the parts that open are more than 1.7 metres above the floor of the room. Both parts of that condition have to be met, and the obscure glazing is required across the whole window.
Flat roofs on houses
The same limits apply to a flat roof on a house, where the roof surface stands in for the slope. A lantern or a rooflight on a raised upstand can use up the allowance quickly. Manufacturers set minimum upstand heights, commonly around 150mm above the finished roof, so a tall frame can take a job outside Class C before any glass is counted. If a design does go past the limit, the route is a planning application, and our survey measures the height before anything is ordered.
What a Tyneside flat owner has to do
Submit the application first, order afterwards, and talk the lease through with the other owner. Permission settles the planning question, not who may alter the roof.
For a flat, the planning route is an application to the council. Because there is no householder permitted development to fall back on, the height of the rooflight does not change that. A small roof window in a loft above an upstairs flat needs the same permission as a large one.
Which council
Applications are made to whichever council covers the address. Within the city that is Newcastle City Council. Across the river it may be Gateshead Council, and along the coast it may be North Tyneside Council or South Tyneside Council. Further out, Northumberland County Council to the north, Durham County Council to the south and Sunderland City Council to the south-east each handle their own ground. Our survey notes which applies.
The other owner and the paperwork
Planning permission and ownership are separate matters. Permission says the council accepts the rooflight; it does not say you are entitled to alter that part of the building. Look in your title or lease for the answer on roof ownership and for any clause that brings the other flat in. Share the plan with the other owner, and settle it between you, before an order is placed. For a legal view on the wording, a solicitor is the right person to ask.
Timing
Made-to-measure glass is built once the opening size is fixed, so nothing goes on order until the decision has arrived. The quote then describes the very rooflight the council accepted.
What can take the permission away from a house
An Article 4 direction or a condition on an earlier planning permission can remove Class C. A conservation area alone does not remove Class C. Your planning team holds the answer for your street.
A house keeps its Class C permission unless something specific takes it away. Two things can, and both are worth checking before a design is drawn.
Article 4 directions
An Article 4 direction is made by a council for a defined area, and it can remove permitted development rights that would otherwise apply. If one covers your street and includes Class C, a rooflight there needs a planning application. We do not assume which areas have one; the council holds the list.
Conditions on earlier permissions
A planning permission can carry conditions, and some remove permitted development from the property for good. This shows up on houses built under a permission for an estate, and on houses whose extension was approved by application. The decision notice from that earlier permission will say. If you have it, read the conditions; if you do not, ask the planning team.
Conservation areas
A conservation area on its own does not remove Class C for a rooflight on a house. The same 150mm and highest-part limits apply there as anywhere else. What can change the answer in a conservation area is an Article 4 direction made for it, which is why the council check matters more than the postcode. Our conservation rooflights page covers the product side.
Where to ask
Your council's planning team can say whether either an Article 4 direction or a condition covers your address, and the Planning Portal explains how to apply when one is needed.
Listed homes follow their own consent route
A listed house keeps Class C on the planning side, but almost any rooflight on it needs listed building consent, and that consent decides the job. Apply to the council and wait for the decision.
Listing works on a separate track from planning permission. The planning side of a listed house is unchanged: Class C still applies in the same way as it does to any house. The difference is that a rooflight alters the building, and almost any alteration to the roof of a listed building needs listed building consent.
Consent is the real decision
Because listed building consent is the approval that matters, a rooflight that meets Class C can still be refused consent, and a design that goes past Class C can still be granted it. The consent decision is what governs the job. It is applied for through the council, and the application usually needs drawings and a description of what is being fitted and where.
Finding out whether a home is listed
The National Heritage List for England records every listed building and is searchable by address; Historic England publishes it at historicengland.org.uk. If your house is on it, speak to the council's conservation team before design work starts.
Choosing the product
Slim-framed rooflights that sit flush with the slope are the usual starting point on older roofs. They are only a starting point, as the consent officer decides what is acceptable on the individual building.
| Your home | Planning route | Also involved |
|---|---|---|
| House, no Article 4 or condition | Class C, if within the limits | Building Control notification |
| House under an Article 4 direction | Planning application | Building Control notification |
| House with a removing condition | Planning application | Building Control notification |
| Upstairs or downstairs flat | Planning application | Title or lease, other owner |
| House in a conservation area | Class C, unless Article 4 applies | Building Control notification |
| Listed house | Class C stays; consent governs | Listed building consent |
Planning is one approval and Building Control is another
Cutting a new opening in a roof is building work, notified to Building Control whether or not planning applies. Part L thermal limits apply too, and Quayside files the notification for notifiable work.
Planning decides whether a rooflight is acceptable where it sits. Building Regulations decide whether the work is built to the required standard. They run separately, and a rooflight that is permitted development still has to meet the second set.
The notification
Because cutting a new opening in a roof is building work, it is notified to Building Control, either the local authority or a registered building control approver. Quayside makes that notification for you wherever the work is notifiable, so the paperwork does not land on your desk.
Thermal performance
Under Part L for existing dwellings in England, the limiting U-value is 2.2 W/m²K for a rooflight, and 1.4 W/m²K (or WER Band B) for a roof window. Houses carry no Building Regulations daylight requirement, which leaves the size of the opening as a design choice.
Putting it together
The sequence runs: identify the type of home, work out the planning route, settle who must agree, notify Building Control, then fit. Our survey costs nothing, and the quote after it is a fixed, written one. A written ten-year guarantee covers the workmanship. The terms are on our guarantee page. The next step is a quote request. For the whole range, begin at the homepage.
Planning loose ends, tied up
How do I find out whether an Article 4 direction covers my house?
Contact your council's planning department with the full address. They hold the records of directions and of conditions on earlier permissions. We do not guess at which streets are covered, because the answer is held by the council and can differ between neighbouring roads.
Does the back slope of my roof have easier rules than the front?
Not under Class C. The 150mm and highest-part limits apply to every slope of a house. The extra condition, obscure glazing and non-opening unless the opening parts are more than 1.7 metres above the floor, applies only to a side-elevation slope.
Can the council confirm in writing that my rooflight is permitted?
Yes. A lawful development certificate is an optional document in which the council confirms that proposed work is lawful. It can be useful when you sell. The council's planning pages explain the application.
Do I need anything else for a loft room with a roof window?
Yes, Building Control covers the opening and the conversion. A roof window counts as an escape window only for a room within 4.5 metres of the ground, and a loft conversion on a two-storey house needs a protected stair instead.
Who prepares the drawings for a planning application on a flat?
You can submit it yourself or have an agent do it. It needs a drawing of the roof showing where the rooflight goes. Our survey records the measurements those drawings are made from.