Ask five people whether a new roof needs permission and you will get five answers, because the question hides several separate ones. Building Regulations deal with safety and energy. Planning law deals with how a building looks and what it is used for. Listed building law protects character. Highway law covers a scaffold standing on a pavement. The Party Wall etc. Act covers work that affects a neighbour. And CDM, the construction safety regulations, covers how the job is run.
Each has its own test, its own body to ask and its own paperwork, and most re-roofs touch only one or two of them. This page is the map. It takes each rule in turn with the facts that apply here, in an area where Somerset Council now acts as the one council and Somerset Building Control looks after the Building Regulations. It is a guide to the questions to ask, not legal advice, and it does not replace a word with your building control body or the planning team. Where a rule needs more room there is a link to the guide that covers it in full. For how we approach a whole job, start from the Taunton Prestige Roofing homepage.
Building Regulations and the re-roof threshold
Building Regulations are about how a building performs: structure, fire, energy and ventilation. For a re-roof the Planning Portal sets a two-part test, and a job has to sit inside both limits to avoid an application. One limit is under 25 per cent of the building envelope, the other is under 50 per cent of the roof. Think of the envelope as the whole outer skin of the house, from the floor and walls to the glazing, so the first measure looks at the entire building and the second at the roof alone.
Is the weight of the new covering a factor?
It does. According to the Planning Portal, approval is needed for a covering that adds 15 per cent or more to the load on the roof, and also for one that performs noticeably differently in a fire. Its advice is to consult an engineer or surveyor on the structure first. Replacing slate with concrete tile is the textbook case. Our guide to heavier roof tiles and Building Regulations goes through it.
Does Somerset have a threshold of its own?
Somerset Building Control publishes no re-roofing percentage, which leaves the national test above as the guide. Fees for a re-roof or an insulation upgrade come from the calculator's renovation-of-a-thermal-element line for one dwelling, and a notifiable re-roof is priced that way. The team can be reached on 0300 303 7790. On a full plans application, it indicates a first response inside 10 working days and a decision after about five weeks.
What if the work was done years ago?
The same body takes regularisation applications for work carried out after 11 November 1985, which is one route when a buyer's solicitor finds a missing certificate. See our guides to building control in Taunton and regularisation for the practical steps.
Energy rules for roofs under Part L
Part L of the Building Regulations is the part on fuel and power conservation, and Approved Document L Volume 1 is the guidance for dwellings. The 2021 edition with 2023 amendments has applied in England since 15 June 2022. A newer 2026 edition is due to take effect on 24 March 2027, and until that date the 2021 tables are the ones to quote.
What U-values apply to new roof elements?
A U-value measures heat loss through a surface, and lower is better. For a new or replacement element in an existing home, Table 4.2 gives a roof figure of 0.15 W/(m²·K). The window row asks for 1.4, with a Band B Window Energy Rating as the alternative, and a note puts roof windows in that row. The 2.2 figure is meant for rooflights alone, and writers of specifications swap the two more often than they should.
What about renovation and loft conversions?
Renovation of an existing element follows Table 4.3 instead. There the threshold is 0.35, and the element is improved to 0.16. Paragraph 4.13 gives a way out where that standard cannot feasibly be reached or would not repay itself within 15 years: the best feasible upgrade goes in. Part L counts re-waterproofing a flat roof as renovation, which brings that job under this table.
Who works out which table applies?
Your roofer should say before the job starts, because the insulation depth follows from it and the depth can alter the roof edge, the eaves and the height of upstands. We settle the point at survey, so the written price already reflects it. Our guides to re-roof insulation and Part L and re-roofing over a loft conversion cover the practice, and the flat-roof Building Regulations guide does the same for membranes.
Planning permission and permitted development
Planning law controls development, and a straight like-for-like re-roof often is not development at all. Under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 s55(2)(a), work that does not change how the exterior looks in any material way is not counted as development. On a house, Class C of the General Permitted Development Order deals with further roof alterations to a dwellinghouse, so changing the covering is normally permitted, provided the new roof stays within 0.15 metres of the plane of the original slope.
What are the limits on roof windows and dormers?
A roof window in a side-elevation slope has to be obscure-glazed in every case. The sash may open only where it sits higher than 1.7 metres above the room's floor, and fixed shut is the rule below that. Class B handles dormers, with a volume allowance of 40 cubic metres on a terraced house and 50 elsewhere, and no extension forward of a slope facing the highway. Class B does not apply in a conservation area, within Exmoor National Park, or across the Quantock, Blackdown and Mendip Hills National Landscapes, which means any dormer in those places goes in as a planning application.
Who decides, and what changes in a protected area?
Somerset Council's planning team decides across most of the county. Inside Exmoor National Park the authority is the Exmoor National Park Authority. An Article 4 direction withdraws specified rights across a defined area, and Somerset Council lists directions for places including Wellington and Staplegrove Road in Taunton. Ask the planning team what a direction covers before you assume anything. Flats are outside the definition of a dwellinghouse for these purposes, so Class C does not help a flat owner.
The detail sits in our guides to planning permission for roof work, conservation areas in Taunton, roof planning on Exmoor and dormers in a National Landscape.
Listed buildings, churches and consent
Listed building consent runs alongside planning and does not replace it. A listed house keeps Class B and Class C rights, since neither class excludes it. Section 7 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 then bars any alteration affecting the building's special character unless it is authorised. A different slate, a changed ridge detail or a new lead pattern can all qualify as such an alteration. Speak to the planning team ahead of any purchase, since the owner pays to undo a change made without permission.
Do churches follow the same route?
Not always. A parish church in use for Anglican worship goes through the diocese's faculty system. Catholic, Methodist and URC congregations follow their denominations' approval systems, and Baptist buildings under a Schedule 1 trust corporation follow theirs. Where the building is a Unitarian or Quaker meeting place, or a closed church, or a chapel converted to a home, and it is listed, the standard listed building consent route applies. Scheduled monuments are different again: the Secretary of State grants that consent, and the council does not.
Where does a roofer fit in?
Responsibility for obtaining consent stays with the owner. A roofer can describe the work precisely, photograph what is there now and help assemble an application, but the application is yours. For a listed home in a Taunton conservation area, consent from the planning team may be needed in addition to any Building Regulations application, and the two run on separate clocks.
If you are unsure whether a building is listed, ask Somerset Council's planning team before any work begins.
Our guide to listed building roof consent explains the application, and the chimney consent guide covers stacks and pots.
Scaffold licences, party walls and CDM
Three more rules attach to how the work is done rather than what it is.
When does scaffolding need a licence?
Section 169 of the Highways Act 1980 prohibits putting up or leaving a scaffold that obstructs the highway without the highway authority's licence. In Taunton the authority is Somerset Council, whose page says it licenses scaffolds on the highway for accredited contractors alone, with the appointed scaffold contractor filing the application. Its fee is £124.60 for each 28-day period (Somerset Council, April 2026), and it asks for at least 10 working days' notice. Across the Devon edge, Devon County Council says it is scaffolding companies who apply on their customers' behalf, and the fee is £158. Elsewhere, ask who applies. Our guide to the Somerset scaffold licence gives more.
When does the Party Wall etc. Act come in?
Under section 2(2)(g) of the Party Wall etc. Act 1996, an owner may cut a chimney breast, jamb or flue back from a party wall. Section 3(2)(a) sets a minimum of two months' notice ahead of the work. GOV.UK counts taking chimneys out of a party wall as notifiable work, and says a neighbour who stays quiet has not agreed. Questions go to a party wall surveyor, not to building control. See party wall roof work.
What does CDM mean for a homeowner?
The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 hand a domestic client's responsibilities to the contractor where only one contractor is working. With two or more contractors involved, or likely to be, the client must appoint a principal designer and also a principal contractor, putting both appointments in writing. A construction phase plan is needed whichever applies. Our guide to CDM duties for homeowners explains how that works on a house.
The three rules do not often arrive together on a house. A re-roof often meets a scaffold licence and the CDM plan, and a chimney job adds the party wall question. The survey is the fastest way to learn which of these applies to yours, and the written price comes after it.
Roof rules queries
Do I need planning permission or building control sign-off for my roof?
Re-covering a house in matching material is normally dealt with by Class C. Building control is not normally needed while under 25 per cent of the envelope and under 50 per cent of the roof is touched, but a heavier covering, a listed home or a protected area adds checks.
Which party puts in the scaffold licence application for a job in Taunton?
Somerset Council says the appointed scaffold contractor makes the application, and that licences go only to accredited contractors. Across the Devon edge, Devon County Council states that the scaffolding company applies for its customers. Outside those areas, ask your roofer who will make the application.
Does removing a chimney breast need a party wall notice?
If the breast forms part of a wall shared with next door, the neighbour must be served a party structure notice, giving two months before work begins. Separately, Building Regulations approval applies in every case, because a chimney breast is structural.
More on this subject: Roofers in Taunton
