What the World Heritage Site covers
UNESCO inscribed the property in 1988. Its three named places are St Martin's Church, St Augustine's Abbey and the Cathedral, and together they make up the World Heritage Site. It is not the whole of Canterbury, and it is no label for every old house in the city centre.
A buffer zone ties the three parts together. The buffer zone is a different thing from the site boundary, and Canterbury's Local Plan has policies that protect the setting of the site. The Canterbury Conservation Area Appraisal also covers views of the Cathedral.
That gives three layers a homeowner may meet:
- The World Heritage Site itself, a planning matter with a rule for permitted development.
- The buffer zone and the setting of the site, which the Local Plan and the appraisal take into account.
- Any conservation area or listing that applies to the particular house.
Canterbury City Council can say which of these touches your address.
Begin by learning whether your house sits inside the site boundary, in the buffer zone, or outside both. Each answer leads to a different set of questions.
Article 2(3) land and the dormer right
The General Permitted Development Order lists the land where some permitted development rights are removed. Schedule 1 includes, in its list of article 2(3) land, "a World Heritage Site", alongside conservation areas, areas of outstanding natural beauty and National Parks.
The effect is on Class B, the right to enlarge a house by adding a dormer. Class B does not apply where the house is on article 2(3) land. So inside the World Heritage Site boundary, a dormer window is not permitted development, and planning permission is needed. GOV.UK's guidance on when permission is required lists World Heritage Sites among that land too.
Do not stretch that further than it goes. The rule is tied to the site boundary. Nowhere does the Order mention the buffer zone, so standing in it does not on its own remove the dormer right. Whether anything else applies there turns on conservation area status, listing and the Local Plan.
This means the answer for a house in a conservation area outside the site can differ from a house in the site itself, even if they are a few streets apart.
What the designation does not change
Class C covers roof changes that sit outside dormers and extensions, and re-covering a house is one of them. Article 2(3) land removes Class B, not Class C. So replacing the covering on a house inside the site is, as elsewhere, normally permitted development, subject to the conditions of Class C.
Roof windows are in the same position. They are alterations under Class C, and the World Heritage Site does not take that right away. The conditions that do apply to them, including those on side slopes, are set out on the guide to roof window planning permission.
Two other routes may still bite, whatever the Site rule says:
- A listed house keeps its permitted-development rights, but alterations touching its character need listed building consent. The consent point is on Canterbury City Council's listed buildings page.
- A flat has no permitted development rights, and Canterbury says so in its own words.
Some churches, and the Cathedral, sit outside the usual consent route. Where a Church of England building is still in use, the faculty system applies, and for the Cathedral the Care of Cathedrals Measure does. The page on church roof repairs and consent covers those.
How to check your own address
Start with the council. It can tell you whether the house is within the Site boundary, in a conservation area, listed, or none of these. Ask in writing and keep the reply.
- Find out whether the house is inside the World Heritage Site boundary.
- Ask whether it sits in a conservation area, and see is my house in a conservation area.
- Check whether it is listed.
- Ask whether an Article 4 direction applies, which can take further rights away. See Article 4 and roof work.
With those answers, the roofer can say what the job needs. A plain re-roof of a house usually proceeds as permitted development. A dormer inside the Site needs an application. A listed house also needs its own consent whenever a change touches its character.
This page is about the Canterbury site only. When we survey a Canterbury roof, the planning route is part of the conversation before a price is written; Castle Roofing Margate then puts one total in writing.
If you are unsure, ask the council before ordering anything. It is quicker to ask first than to undo work afterwards.
