Planning permission for flats and houses in Edinburgh

A bathroom fan can be the planning question

Most of the room may be ordinary renovation work. At the outside wall, the extract duct needs somewhere to finish. The same issue appears with boiler flues, new windows, rooflights and a change to the colour or material of an elevation.

I would not give a permission verdict from the name of the trade. I would want the address, the property type, its designations and a drawing or photograph showing the elevation affected.

We are renovation contractors. We can find these interfaces and discuss whether the proposal is practical to build. Planning judgement stays with the Council and the client’s architect or planning adviser.

First establish the property

Scottish permitted development rights treat flats and houses differently. A change that may be permitted development for a house can need an application when it affects a flat or shared tenement building. Scottish Government Circular 1/2024 sets out the national rules.

Listing, conservation-area status and the World Heritage Site can alter the route again. I use the Council’s householder guidance once those facts are known.

Shared ownership sits alongside planning. Permission for an alteration does not give one flat owner the right to change common property. I would separate that conversation rather than assume the application deals with both.

Windows after the May 2024 change

I check the current window guidance rather than repeat what applied a few years ago.

For an unlisted house in a conservation area, replacement windows on the rear elevation, or on a side elevation that does not face a road, may fall within permitted development if the conditions are met. Where the design or materials change on the principal elevation, or on a road-facing side elevation, the Council’s prior approval route can apply. Listed buildings and properties in the World Heritage Site are excluded from this particular route.

The Council diagrams the positions on its windows and prior approval page. I ask for one photograph of the whole elevation and its relationship to the road, as well as the close view of the frame.

Getting advice on a small proposal

The Council publishes generic guidance. Its current bespoke pre-application service does not ordinarily cover householder development or simple alterations, except in exceptional circumstances. The exclusions appear in the planning pre-application customer service guide.

For a borderline proposal, I would use a conservation architect or planning adviser. I send the address, listing entry if there is one, conservation-area status, photographs of the affected elevations and a short description or sketch of the change.

Planning permission, listed building consent and a building warrant remain separate. An internal alteration in a listed flat may raise listed-building questions without creating a major external planning change. A window proposal may need planning attention while the interior decoration behind it does not. If it is the warrant side you are unsure about, our building warrant checker asks six questions about the planned work and shows which approval questions to raise with the verifier or your design team.

For a property you are considering buying, our renovation feasibility walkthrough can identify visible buildability, scope and cost questions to carry to those professionals. It does not decide the planning, consent or warrant route.

The same distinction commonly affects home extensions in Edinburgh and external roof changes for an Edinburgh loft conversion.

Sometimes the design changes at this point. A vent moves to another elevation. An existing window is repaired. The new external colour stays closer to the building around it.

A proposal to use space below ground has its own feasibility questions. Our basement conversions page sets out what the brief needs before a construction quotation.