Church roof repairs and the ecclesiastical exemption

Listed building law normally asks the local planning authority to consent to works that affect a listed building's character. Section 60 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 lifts those controls for an ecclesiastical building that is currently used for ecclesiastical purposes. That is the ecclesiastical exemption.

It is narrower than many parishes assume. A 2010 order confines it to the denominations it names, and the Government's guidance says plainly that no other faiths benefit from it today. The exemption trades the council's consent for the denomination's own system, which has to be followed in its place. A church roof is never simply free of approval.

That makes the opening task a matter of finding out three things: who owns the building, which denomination it belongs to, and whether it is still in use for worship. The answers decide every step that follows, including who you write to and what they will want to see.

The route differs by church. This list follows the Government's guidance and the 2010 order.

• Church of England, in use: exempt, with a faculty needed, granted within the Church's own jurisdiction. Your churchwardens or the parish office will know who to ask.
• Roman Catholic, in use: exempt, using the denomination's own procedure.
• Methodist, in use: exempt, with the denomination's own approval process.
• Baptist, in use: exempt only if one of the trust corporations listed in the order holds the building. Its own procedure applies, and Baptists have no diocese.
• United Reformed Church, in use: exempt where the building is held on the trusts the order specifies.
• Quaker, Unitarian and any other faith: not exempt, so the council's listed building consent applies.

Ask the denomination's property office for the exact steps and forms, because committee names and procedures change. A roofer should not guess at them, and neither should a parish treasurer working from memory of the last repair.

A closed church loses it. The Government's guidance says a Church of England church is fully subject to ordinary listed building and conservation area controls once it has been closed for regular public worship. For other exempt denominations, the controls return from the point when the building stops being used for worship.

Churches that have passed to the Churches Conservation Trust fall under the secular controls too, which means a roof repair there needs listed building consent from the council.

Two further limits trip parishes up. First, planning permission is a separate matter that the exemption leaves alone, so a development changing how a listed church looks from outside still needs it. Second, a scheduled monument, which can include a structure in the churchyard, needs scheduled monument consent granted by the Secretary of State, and the exemption is no substitute for it. Ask the council which of these apply to your site before anyone prices the roof, and keep the answer in writing.

Because consent comes before the work, the survey has to come early. A written condition report with photographs of the roof coverings, the lead, the rainwater goods and the parapets is what a diocesan body, a committee or a council will expect to see with any application. Allow for the timetable: approval can take longer than the repair itself.

Keep the scope to the smallest repair that will really fix the problem, and describe it in terms a committee of volunteers can follow. Replacing a handful of failed slates or renewing a section of lead is easier to justify than recovering a whole roof. Like-for-like materials are the usual expectation on a listed roof, and our guide to leadwork on listed buildings and churches covers the detail work involved.

A leaking roof may need emergency protection before consent arrives. Ask the approving body which temporary measures it will accept, and take dated photographs of the roof both before and after the make-safe. A parish with several buildings can see how a report is laid out on our commercial roof survey page, which covers the same ground.

Church roofs are high, steep and often covered in lead, and the timbers below can hide decay. Scaffolding is normally needed, and where the poles will stand on the pavement, a licence must come from the highway authority, which is the county council, and notice periods are set by that council. See our note on the scaffold licence in West Sussex.

Towers, parapets and valleys between roof slopes need edge protection and a plan for lifting materials safely. Our guide to roof edge protection covers the principles.

Bats have legal protection, and repairs to a roof can disturb them. Older church roofs and towers suit bats well, so raise the point at the survey stage, not halfway through the job. Our commercial roofing team can survey a church roof and set down what is found, with photographs, so the consent body has something concrete to read.