Listed Building Consent in Kent — the process

A listed building is one entered on the National Heritage List for England, maintained by Historic England, because of its architectural or historic interest. Listing applies to the whole building — exterior, interior, and any structures attached to or in the curtilage of it predating 1948 (boundary walls, outbuildings, garden features).

Grade I (about 2.5% of all listed buildings) — exceptional interest. Grade II* (5.5%) — particularly important, more than special. Grade II (92%) — special interest warranting protection. Around our patch, Biddenden has Grade I cloth halls on the High Street; most Wealden hall houses, weatherboarded farmhouses and oast houses we work on are Grade II.

Search the National Heritage List for your address — list.historicengland.org.uk — to confirm grade, list entry number, and the listing description (which sometimes flags specific features of interest).

Almost any work affecting the character of a listed building requires consent. The bar is deliberately low.

• Any structural alteration — new openings, removed walls, reconfigured layouts, new floors or staircases.
• Replacement of historic fabric — windows, doors, joinery, fireplaces, panelling, ceilings.
• Re-roofing, even like-for-like in matching materials.
• Re-pointing, especially if the existing mortar is to change in colour or composition.
• Internal redecoration that uses materials inappropriate to the building (gypsum plaster over lime, modern paint over lime-washed walls).
• Demolition of any part of the building, including outbuildings, walls, or curtilage structures.
• Installation of services that affect fabric — new heating runs, electrical re-wiring through historic plasterwork, new bathrooms cut into historic rooms.

Section 9 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 makes it a criminal offence to carry out works to a listed building requiring consent without that consent first being granted. The offence is committed by the person doing the work, the person who commissioned it, and (potentially) the building owner.

Penalties on summary conviction: unlimited fine. On indictment: unlimited fine and/or imprisonment up to two years. Local authorities can serve an enforcement notice requiring the building to be restored to its pre-works state at the owner's cost, and the offence stays on the building's record affecting future sale.

Honest mistakes happen — most enforcement actions in Kent start with a phone call from a conservation officer who's spotted scaffolding go up. If you're in any doubt about whether consent is needed, the safest move is to ask the conservation officer before starting work. They'd rather have a phone call than serve a notice.

Each of the three local authorities we work in offers paid pre-application advice for listed-building work:

• Ashford Borough Council: £162 for householder listed pre-app (2026 fees).
• Tunbridge Wells Borough Council: £150-£300 depending on complexity.
• Folkestone & Hythe District Council: £155.

Listed Building Consent is applied for via the Planning Portal, separate from planning permission. There is no application fee for LBC (unlike planning, which charges £258 for householder).

What you submit:

• Scaled existing drawings (plans, elevations, section, site plan) showing what's there.
• Scaled proposed drawings showing what you intend to change.
• Drawings annotated to show every alteration — even small ones.
• A Heritage Statement assessing the significance of what's being affected and justifying the change.
• Photographs of the affected areas, internal and external.
• Material specifications — which lime mortar, which type of brick, which roof tile source.
• A Design and Access Statement (overlaps with the heritage statement; often combined).

This is the document that does the heavy lifting on a listed application. A weak heritage statement reads like apology ("we don't want to change much, please approve"); a strong one reads like analysis ("the building's significance lies in its hall-house plan form and surviving original close-studded frame; our proposal removes a 1980s plasterboard partition that obscures the frame, and reinstates the open hall character; the impact on significance is positive").

For Grade II buildings, a thoughtful heritage statement written by the architect is often sufficient. For Grade II* and Grade I, a specialist heritage consultant is close to essential — Historic England (a statutory consultee on those grades) will read the statement carefully and respond to its analytical depth.

For Grade I and Grade II* applications, the local planning authority is required to consult Historic England (HE). HE has 21 days to comment; their comments are not binding but in practice carry significant weight.

HE comment is more likely to support proposals that demonstrate genuine understanding of significance, propose like-for-like repair where possible, use reversible interventions for new elements, and respect the building's original structural logic. Schemes that propose modern interventions in conflict with historic fabric — new openings through original walls, removal of original partitions, replacement of original windows with modern equivalents — face an uphill battle.

Ashford Borough Council (covering Rolvenden, Tenterden, Biddenden, and most of our patch): conservation team is small but accessible; officers respond to phone calls; pre-app is well-used. Decisions tend to favour traditional approaches.

Tunbridge Wells Borough Council (covering Cranbrook, Goudhurst, Sissinghurst): larger conservation team; more formal pre-app process; high volume of listed work means officers are well-versed in Wealden building types. Decisions can be quicker if applications are well-prepared.

Folkestone & Hythe District Council (covering Hawkhurst on the eastern edge of our patch): smaller volume of listed work; officers may consult external specialists for complex cases.

Most listed-building projects need both LBC and planning permission (LBC for any change to fabric, planning permission for change of use or for works that would normally need planning). The two applications can and should be submitted in parallel — they run on similar 8-13 week determination timelines and the same evidence supports both.

Common pitfall: assuming that LBC is enough on its own for an extension because "it's a listed building, isn't it under separate rules?" — no. You need both consents. Submitting only one delays the project by several months.

LBC almost always comes with conditions. Common ones: materials samples to be approved before use, mortar mix to be approved on site, specific architectural details (door profiles, window profiles, ridge tile choice) to be confirmed before installation.

Each condition needs formal discharge — a separate application via Planning Portal with the evidence required (material samples, photos, drawings). Fee is £43 per condition (2026). Work that proceeds without discharging conditions can be enforced against.