Do you need listed building consent to re-slate?

Section 7 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 bars demolition of a listed building, and any alteration or extension that would touch what makes it special, unless the work has been authorised. On most listed houses the roof counts for a good deal of that. Unauthorised work can amount to an offence, and the council can require a roof to be put back as it was, so it pays to ask before you start.

The test is whether the work affects the character of the building, not how big the job is. That is why a neat repair can need no consent while a modest change of material can. Which council decides depends on where you live, and inside the South Downs National Park it is the Authority itself or the district council acting for it. We cannot give legal advice, so treat this page as a guide to the questions worth asking.

The South Downs National Park Authority draws the line at upkeep and modest repairs done in situ with identical materials: those need no consent. For slating, that points to replacing a handful of broken slates with matching ones, refixing slipped slates, and similar small work, after which the roof still looks and works the way it did.

The key words are like for like and in place: the same size, type and colour of slate, laid in the same pattern and fixed in the same spots. Even then, ask the conservation officer to confirm, because what counts as minor depends on the building, its grade and the condition of the roof. Our slate roof repair guide describes the sort of small job that fits. A listed roof is also a place where photographs earn their keep: before and after pictures of every slate touched show the council and any later buyer that nothing about the roof's character was changed.

Stripping a whole roof and laying it again is a bigger step. If the existing slates are reused and laid exactly as before, you may still be on safe ground, but the council may want a method statement. Changing the slate type, size, colour or origin, adding or removing roof lights, altering a ridge or verge, or switching from nails to hooks all change what the roof looks like, and consent is then usually needed.

Moving to another covering altogether, such as concrete tiles, will almost always need consent on a listed building. Have the old slates photographed and counted before they come off, so the council can see what you plan to put back, and so that sound slates can be kept for reuse. Our guide to re-slating a roof explains the stages, and our page on hooks against nails covers one of the changes people overlook.

Places of worship follow different rules. A Church of England place of worship in regular use falls outside listed building consent, with works going through the faculty system, and other exempt denominations have their own approval processes. Not every faith is covered, and a closed church comes back under the usual controls. A scheduled monument needs scheduled monument consent, which is a separate thing from listed building consent, and a churchyard can contain one.

Planning permission remains a separate question wherever the outside of a listed place of worship would change, whatever the exemption says. If your building is anything out of the ordinary, ask the council first and get the answer in writing. Our page on slate roofs in a conservation area covers the nearby case of an unlisted building in a protected street.

Ask the council's conservation officer or planning team before you instruct work. For most of this area that means Arun District Council, Chichester District Council or the council for your town. Inside the National Park, the Authority takes the decision for its Arun and Horsham areas, but Chichester and East Hampshire district councils receive the applications on its behalf.

Take photographs of the roof, a note of the slate you have, and a description of the work you propose, with the slate size if you can measure it safely from a window. We prepare survey photographs of the slates, ridges, valleys and flashings, and set out the repair or re-slate in writing, so the council has something specific to respond to. Our price arrives as one total, and the job should not start until any consent needed is in place. Re-slating also brings in the Building Regulations, which our page on re-slating and building regulations explains. The slate roofing page covers the wider service.