Conservation areas: statutory considerations for surveyors

Despite their long-established role in the planning system, conservation areas remain widely misunderstood across the property sector.

This article, applicable to arrangements in England, sets out key statutory considerations for surveyors when advising on conservation areas.

By revisiting the statutory background for designation and protection, it provides surveyors with the tools they need to counter such misunderstanding and to give clear advice on this topic.

The Act places responsibility for the designation of conservation areas on local planning authorities (LPAs) and requires that designations be reviewed periodically by LPAs to establish whether new areas should be included.

This part of the Act also includes provision, albeit rarely used, for the Secretary of State to intervene and designate an area as a conservation area.

In practice, conservation areas often include locations such as historic town and village centres where there may be several listed buildings that are individually protected but also many unlisted buildings, which collectively form an area of architectural or historic interest.

Conservation areas in historic town and village centres also often include other historic features such as burgage plots and common land. More rural conservation areas often include natural or semi-natural features of interest, such as wood pasture, ancient woodland, woodbanks and ancient or veteran trees, sometimes themselves of historic significance.

A further common type of conservation area is that of more modern planned villages and industrial plantations that include designed housing and amenities, together forming an area of architectural or historic interest.

These areas are often composed of individual buildings that would be unlikely to merit listing in their own right.

These documents provide extensive information on the historic and architectural background of each conservation area and can provide helpful guidance on the LPA's priorities in determining planning applications affecting any conservation area.

In particular, character appraisals often identify and define groups of buildings or streets that are deemed to contribute particularly strongly to the special interest of the area.

The Act requires character appraisals to be periodically reviewed by the LPA, a process that includes considering whether any conservation area should be extended.

Additionally, some LPAs publish associated documents, including design guides and householder guides, for those working on or living in conservation areas. These guides can provide helpful advice to design teams and domestic clients.

Character appraisals, design guides and householder guides are usually publicly available on the relevant LPA's website; however, most publicly available character appraisal examples date from before 2011.

Many LPAs have no access to full-time in-house building conservation expertise and rely on shared provision or external consultancies. As such, they may have no direct means of updating their character appraisals.

Additionally, in some cases no mapping is available to confirm the current extent of a conservation area. This often occurs where extension was proposed during a review prior to 2011 but where no final character appraisal is publicly available confirming the outcome of the review.

In some instances, confirmation may be obtained by inspecting the local plan and any associated mapping services.

Where the position remains unclear and where no pre-application advice is available, reasonable assumptions must be made in advance of submitting an application based on the information available.

Instead, section 72 of the Act places a general responsibility on LPAs that, during the 'exercise of planning functions' in respect of any given conservation area, 'special attention shall be paid to the desirability of preserving or enhancing the character or appearance of that area'.

In practice, this means that where an application for planning permission is made in a conservation area, its protection is a material consideration for the LPA in making its determination.

This will generally be achieved by the allocated planning officer seeking the views of the local authority conservation officer in respect of any such application.

Additionally, section 74 of the Act (as amended) requires planning permission to be obtained for demolition of all or part of a building in a conservation area.

As before, in practice this allows for the views of the local authority conservation officer to be sought in advance of a decision being made in any given case.

Conservation area status also provides a degree of protection for trees in the designated area. Landowners wishing to carry out tree works must provide the relevant LPA with six weeks' notice of any proposed tree works to enable the LPA to consider whether a tree preservation order should be imposed in respect of the tree concerned.

Application of an article 4 order by an LPA removes permitted development rights in the affected area. This is often applied to conservation areas in order to:

• give LPAs a closer degree of control over development, and
• allow specialist conservation advice to be provided before permission is granted.

Where an article 4 order is in force in a conservation area, this effectively removes all permitted development rights and requires planning permission to be obtained for all external works, including, for instance, replacement of roof coverings or windows and redecoration of external joinery.

As before, this allows the local authority conservation officer to be consulted on the proposed works, to provide conservation and heritage advice prior to determination of any given application.

In practice, application of an article 4 order requires planning permission to be obtained for most minor external works in a conservation area including, for instance, replacement of roof coverings, windows and redecoration of external joinery.

Note that while many LPAs apply a general requirement for planning permission in conservation areas as though an article 4 order were in force, in many cases it is difficult to confirm from publicly available sources whether any such order exists.

In these cases and where no pre-application advice is available, reasonable assumptions must be made in advance of submitting an application based on the information available.

Where a building or structure is included in a conservation area, the protections afforded to it relate to all elevations, including those not visible from public areas.

There is no provision in the planning legislation allowing for conservation area status to protect only the front of buildings in a particular location, for instance on a prominent street.

Similarly, planning legislation does not give LPAs the power to assess the suitability of internal works to unlisted buildings in conservation areas for conservation or heritage purposes, even where those buildings are included on a local list.

The inclusion of a building in a conservation area provides an exemption from the requirement to comply with Part L during refurbishment works to residential properties 'where to do so would unacceptably alter the dwelling's character or appearance' (paragraph 0.8, page 3 of Part L volume 1). A similar exemption is provided for non-residential properties in conservation areas (paragraph 0.14, page 4 of Part L volume 2).

Determining where energy efficiency improvements would unacceptably alter the character or appearance of a building in a conservation area requires professional judgement, and it is expected that in making such a decision, the appointed building control officer would seek the input of the local authority conservation officer where possible.

While some energy efficiency improvements, such as providing vapour permeable insulation in a cold roof void, may have little impact on the building's appearance and character, others, such as installing external wall insulation, could have a drastic effect that is unlikely to be acceptable.

Occasionally, the implications are more nuanced and the outcome is likely to depend on the context, such as installing slimline 'heritage' double-glazed units in existing window frames.

The extent to which it impacts development or refurbishment is likely to vary between local authorities due to, for example, their resources and approach.

Whenever possible, the starting point should be pre-application consultation and use of the existing literature and guidance provided by the local authority.