Permitted development is permission you already have
Most small garden projects do not need an application, because the government grants a standing permission called permitted development for work inside a set of limits. Stay within them and you can build. Go past them and you apply.
That last sentence is worth reading twice, because these numbers get treated as prohibitions. Going over a limit does not mean you cannot have the thing. It means somebody looks at it first. A great many people quietly build something worse than they wanted in order to stay under a figure they could have applied to exceed.
Everything below is England. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland run their own systems with different figures.
Fences: one metre at the front, two everywhere else
A fence, gate or garden wall can be up to two metres from ground level, except where it is next to a highway used by vehicles, or the footpath of one, where the limit is one metre.
Driveways: the material decides it, not the size
A new or replacement driveway of any size needs no permission if it uses permeable or porous surfacing, such as gravel, permeable block paving or porous asphalt, or if the rainwater is directed to a lawn or border to drain naturally.
Permission is needed for more than five square metres of traditional impermeable surfacing that does not drain to a permeable area.
So the five metre figure is not a general size limit and quoting it as one is the usual mistake. It only applies to the impermeable case. Solve the drainage and the size stops mattering.
Sheds and outbuildings
- Single storey, with eaves no higher than 2.5m.
- 4m overall for a dual pitched roof, 3m for any other roof.
- 2.5m overall if it sits within two metres of a boundary, which is where most sheds go.
- No more than half the land around the original house covered by additions and outbuildings together.
- Nothing forward of the wall forming the principal elevation.
The half-the-land rule catches people, because original house does not mean the house as you bought it. Extensions built by previous owners count against your allowance rather than adding to it, so the garden space that looks available may already be spent.
Decking, and the 0.3 metre limit nobody knows
Permitted development for outbuildings excludes verandas and balconies, and says that a raised platform must not exceed 0.3 metres in height.
Three hundred millimetres is very little. A deck built out level with an internal floor across a garden that falls away is over it without trying, and so is anything with a step up onto it. Plenty of decks have gone up above that height with nobody asking, which is not the same as them being permitted.
It is also the rule most likely to surface later, because a raised deck overlooking a neighbour is exactly the sort of thing that generates a complaint years afterwards.
When you have none of these rights at all
Permitted development can be absent entirely, and the numbers above are then worth nothing:
- Flats and maisonettes do not have it.
- A planning condition on a newer estate can remove it, which is common.
- An Article 4 Direction withdraws it for an area.
- Listed buildings and conservation areas bring their own restrictions.
Any of those makes the first phone call the council rather than the merchant. It is a five minute check against a project that is expensive to undo.
Working out what you are actually building
Once you know which side of a limit you are on, the quantities. The fencing calculator does posts, panels and gravel boards, and the paving calculator covers slabs and the sub-base underneath. For a shed, shed base works out the slab, and how to lay decking covers the build, including the ground clearance that decides whether it lasts.
If the driveway is going permeable to sidestep the whole question, the driveway finishes page shows what the options look like before you commit.
Common questions
How high can I build a fence without planning permission?
Two metres, unless it is next to a highway used by vehicles or the footpath of one, in which case the limit drops to one metre. That is measured from ground level. The front boundary of most houses is next to such a highway, which is why front fences are held to a metre while the same fence down the side or across the back can be two. There is also a catch on existing fences: if one is already over the limit you cannot make it taller without permission.
Do I need permission to pave my front garden?
It depends on what you pave it with rather than how big it is. A new or replacement driveway of any size needs no permission if it uses permeable or porous surfacing such as gravel, permeable block paving or porous asphalt, or if the rainwater is directed to a lawn or border to drain naturally. Permission is needed for laying more than five square metres of traditional impermeable surfacing that does not drain to a permeable area. So the material decides it, and the five metre figure only applies to the impermeable case.
Does decking need planning permission?
Above 0.3 metres, yes, and this is the limit almost nobody knows. Permitted development for outbuildings excludes verandas, balconies and raised platforms, and states that a platform must not exceed 0.3 metres in height. Three hundred millimetres is not much: a deck that steps out level with an internal floor over a sloping garden clears it easily. Plenty of decks have gone up over that height without anybody checking, which does not make them permitted.
How big a shed can I put up?
It has to be single storey with eaves no higher than 2.5 metres and an overall height no more than four metres for a dual pitched roof or three metres for any other roof. If it sits within two metres of a boundary, the whole thing is capped at 2.5 metres. Separately, all your additions and outbuildings together must not cover more than half the land around the original house, and nothing may go forward of the wall forming the principal elevation.
What does "original house" mean in the fifty per cent rule?
Not the house as you bought it. It means the house as it was originally built, or as it stood at a fixed historic date for older properties, which means previous owners’ extensions count against your allowance rather than enlarging it. This catches people on houses that have already been extended once or twice, because the space that looks available in the garden may already be spoken for by work somebody else did decades ago. It is worth establishing before designing anything.
Do these limits apply everywhere in the UK?
No. These are the permitted development rules for England, and Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland each run their own system with different figures. Within England the rights can also be removed: they do not apply to flats or maisonettes at all, and they can be taken away by a planning condition on a newer estate, by an Article 4 Direction, or by the property being listed or in a conservation area. Check for those before relying on any number here.