The exemption that sets the routes
A listed church would normally need listed building consent from the local council, and the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 carves out an exception. Section 60(1) switches those controls off for a church building during the time it is used as a church, so listed building consent from the council is not needed for repairs in that period.
Two limits stop that being a free pass. The first is that the building must be in use as a church at the time. The second is that the Ecclesiastical Exemption (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (England) Order 2010 confines the exemption to named denominations.
DCMS guidance spells out the other side. Faiths and denominations that are not named in the Order do not have the exemption at present, and secular controls also apply to buildings that belong to the Churches Conservation Trust.
So the first question about any church roof is not what is wrong with the slates. It is who uses the building, and under which system the repair has to be approved. Only then does it make sense to ask a roofer to look at the lead, the valleys or the ridge, because the answer decides who the roofer's specification goes to.
Route by route
Where the exemption applies, the denomination runs its own approval system in place of listed building consent. This table sets out the routes.
| Who uses it | Who consents |
|---|---|
| Church of England, in regular use | A faculty |
| A cathedral | The Measure that governs cathedrals |
| Baptist, Methodist, Roman Catholic, URC | The denomination's internal system |
| Unitarian, Quaker, other faiths | The council, by listed building consent |
| Churches Conservation Trust | The council, by listed building consent |
For Canterbury Cathedral, the published description is that most of the precincts come under the 1990 Measure as amended in 2005, while the cathedral building itself carries a corresponding exemption from listed building consent.
A church that has closed, or is now used for something other than worship, may fall outside the exemption altogether, which is why current use carries such weight. If you are unsure of a building's status, ask the council's conservation team whether the exemption is likely to apply, and ask the denomination too. Both answers belong in the file you hand to a roofer.
Other consents that may apply
The exemption deals with listed building control and nothing else. A church roof can still raise further questions, and each has its own answer.
- A scheduled monument needs scheduled monument consent, because the 1979 Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act makes unauthorised works to one an offence.
- A scaffold over the footway needs Kent County Council's licence under the Highways Act, and the firm erecting it makes the application.
- Whether a new covering triggers Building Regulations approval is for building control, at the council or with a registered approver, to say.
In East Kent the Canterbury World Heritage Site is a planning matter as well as a heritage one. UNESCO inscribed it in 1988 for three parts, the cathedral, St Martin's Church and St Augustine's Abbey, and our answer on the World Heritage Site and roof work sets out what changes inside its boundary.
Do not assume that one approval covers the rest. Ask each body what it needs, write the answers down, and give the roofer the whole set before the scaffold is booked, so the order of the work follows the order of the consents.
Settling the route first
Whoever looks after the church should settle the route before a roofer prices anything. The order that saves most time is this.
- Confirm the denomination, and whether services are still held in the building.
- Check whether it is listed or scheduled, and at what grade.
- Ask the denomination's own advisers, or the council for a building outside the exemption, what the proposed work needs.
- Agree the approach in writing and give the roofer the approval before any work starts.
A roofer can help with the technical case: photographs of the defect, a description of the repair and the materials, and an honest view on whether a like-for-like repair will do. The consent body decides, though, and a price is only worth having once the route is known.
For a listed church the guide to roof repairs on listed buildings covers like-for-like repair and the usual traps.
On any roof across Margate and East Kent, our starting point is the same: find out who gives permission, then look at the roof, then ask for the price.
