A listed building is one that the state has recognised as being of special architectural or historic interest. The roof is often a large part of what makes it so. Old clay tiles, hand-split slates, stone slabs and lead valleys give a house its age and its character, and replacing them carelessly can damage the very thing that was listed.
The law treats listed buildings differently from ordinary homes. Listed building consent is a separate permission, needed for anything that alters what makes the building special, quite apart from any change that needs planning permission. Permitted development rights for roofs still exist for a listed house, but they do not replace the consent.
What follows: how the permissions fit together, why churches and monasteries follow another system, what conservation areas and Article 4 directions mean for roofs around Farnborough, what a conservation officer wants from materials, and how a listed roof job runs from survey to completion.
Why a listed roof is treated differently
For most houses, a re-roof is a matter of building control and sometimes planning. For a listed building, a second layer sits on top. The roof is part of what is protected, and the owner is not free to decide how it is repaired or renewed.
What is protected
Listing covers the whole building, inside and out, including its roof structure, covering, chimneys and details such as ridge tiles, finials and lead. It can also cover structures attached to the building or within its grounds, depending on the listing.
Listed building consent
Under section 7 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990, work that affects the special character of a listed building needs consent first. A like-for-like repair to a sound roof may not alter character. Replacing a hand-made clay tile roof with machine-made concrete tiles clearly does.
The question to ask first
Before you ask for a price, ask your local planning authority whether the work needs consent. For Farnborough addresses that is Rushmoor Borough Council's planning team. Different councils run different processes, and the answer for your house depends on its listing and on exactly what is proposed.
Why a roofer needs to know
A roofer who treats a listed house like any other may propose the wrong material, or fix tiles in a way that would not get consent. Tell any roofer at the outset that the building is listed, and ask whether they have worked to a consent condition before.
Start with the council. A roofer's quote does not replace a consent, and a consent does not replace Building Regulations approval. Our guide to what happens during a new roof shows where each approval sits in the programme.
Consent, planning and permitted development
Three different systems can apply to a listed roof, and they do not overlap in the way people expect.
Listed building consent
This covers alterations to what makes the building special. It is decided on heritage grounds, and it does not depend on whether the work counts as development for planning purposes.
Planning permission and permitted development
Class C of the General Permitted Development Order 2015 takes in other alterations to a house's roof, and a re-roof normally falls inside it. A listed house keeps its Class B and Class C permitted development rights, since the Order has no listed-building exclusion for them. That is a common misunderstanding: listed buildings do not lose these rights, but those rights leave the need for listed building consent untouched.
Flats
A building containing flats, or a flat within one, has no permitted development rights at all. Rushmoor's guidance is that flats need planning permission unless the work is a straight like-for-like replacement that leaves the appearance alone.
Building Regulations
Building control is separate again. On the Planning Portal's test, a building control application is normally unnecessary where less than a quarter of the envelope and less than half the roof is touched. A covering that is 15 per cent or more heavier is different: it needs approval, plus a structural view. For Rushmoor addresses, building control is the Hart and Rushmoor Building Control Partnership on 01252 398715.
Putting it in order
The order matters because each approval depends on the one before. A consent granted for materials that building control later rejects has to be revisited, and a start date fixed before consent invites delay.
- Confirm the listing and its grade with the council.
- Ask the council whether the work needs listed building consent.
- Agree the materials and method with the conservation officer.
- Check Building Regulations with building control.
- Start work only when each approval is in place.
Churches, abbeys and the ecclesiastical exemption
Places of worship follow a different route. Some of them are outside the council's listed building consent system altogether, and the route depends on the denomination.
The exemption
Under section 60 of the 1990 Act, the normal listed building controls are lifted for a church or similar building while it is in ecclesiastical use. The Ecclesiastical Exemption (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (England) Order 2010 limits that to certain denominations.
The routes
| Building | Route |
|---|---|
| C of E church in current use | Faculty jurisdiction |
| Roman Catholic, Methodist, URC, Schedule 1 Baptist | The denomination's own system |
| Unitarian and Quaker buildings, closed churches, Churches Conservation Trust buildings | Listed building consent |
| Scheduled monument | Scheduled monument consent |
St Michael's Abbey
Farnborough's St Michael's Abbey is held as a Benedictine monastery, so it sits on the Roman Catholic side of the table. Rushmoor gives 1887 as its completion date. Works to the church while it is in use follow the Catholic Church's own approvals, not the council's listed building consent.
Records and responsibility
Keep every consent, condition and decision notice with the house papers. A later buyer's solicitor will ask for them, and so will an insurer if a claim ever arises on a listed roof. Where conditions attach, such as approval of sample tiles, the contractor builds them into the programme.
What this means for contractors
A roofer working on any such building needs the right approval before the first tile is lifted, and the person who commissions the work usually handles it. If a church is closed or in other use, the position can change, so ask the relevant body.
Scheduled monuments are a different case again, and the works need scheduled monument consent from the Secretary of State, because the 1979 Act makes unauthorised works an offence.
Conservation-area limits that reach the roof
Many older houses are not listed but sit in a conservation area. Roofs there are not controlled in the way a listed roof is, though the rules on what you can change are tighter.
Rushmoor's conservation areas
Rushmoor has nine designated conservation areas: Aldershot Military, Aldershot West, Basingstoke Canal, Cargate, Farnborough Hill, Farnborough Street, Manor Park, St Michael's Abbey and South Farnborough. Farnborough Hill and Farnborough Street were designated in 2025, replacing an earlier area of the same name. Check the council's map to see whether your address is inside one.
Article 4 directions
An article 4 direction takes away chosen permitted development rights across a set area. In Rushmoor's Cargate area it reaches chimney and flue alterations visible from public land, and in Wellesley it reaches antennas on a roof slope facing the highway. Elsewhere, ask the council whether a direction applies to you.
Nearby councils
Hart's directions, made in 1998, reach work to the roof slopes facing the street, and to chimneys, in the majority of its conservation areas. Basingstoke and Deane applies roof-change controls in four town-centre areas and advises keeping original Welsh slate and clay tile. Guildford uses directions in places to protect chimneys.
Roof windows
A roof window in a conservation-area or listed roof has its own checks, which we cover in our guide to replacing a Velux window.
Materials and the conservation officer
A conservation officer's job is to protect what makes the building special. On a roof, that mostly means the covering, its pattern and its details.
Matching the covering
If the existing roof is hand-made clay plain tile, the replacement is normally the same or a very close match. The same goes for natural slate. Machine-made tiles, concrete tiles and artificial slates often lack the colour variation and texture of the originals, and officers may not accept them. Reclaimed tiles and slates can help match the age and weathering.
How long coverings last
HomeBuilding (Sep 2025) gives clay tiles 60 to 80 years, Welsh slate 100+ years, Spanish natural slate 75 to 100 years and reclaimed Welsh slate 50 to 80 years, all as typical ranges. A listed roof that has already lasted a century or more may well be repairable, and conservation advice usually favours repair over wholesale renewal.
Details that count
- Ridge and hip tiles, which may be specific to the house.
- Lead valleys, flashings and soakers, in the right thickness.
- Verge detail, such as a bedded mortar edge or a cloaked verge.
- Eaves overhangs, rafter feet and barge boards.
- Chimney pots, flaunching and flashings.
Fixing to modern standards
BS 5534:2014+A2:2018 sets out sound fixing for slate and tile without being a law. A listed roof can be fixed to it with fixings that do not show, and that is usually the sensible route. Our guide to re-slating a roof shows how slates are stripped, sorted and re-hung.
Photographs of the existing roof, taken before anything is touched, support the consent application and the record.
Planning the job and what it costs
A listed roof job takes longer to prepare than an ordinary one, and that is normal. Time spent on the specification is time saved later.
Survey and specification
We survey the roof, photograph the existing covering, measure each slope and record the details that matter to a conservation officer. That record can form part of the application. We note what can be repaired, what needs replacing and which materials are proposed, and why.
Consent and approvals
The owner or their agent applies for consent. Time allowed for decisions varies by council, so allow for it in your plans and do not book a start date until the approvals are in place. Check whether any conditions attach, such as sample panels or approval of materials before ordering.
Scaffolding
Highways Act 1980, section 169, puts scaffold over the road or footway under the highway authority's licence, which scaffold on private land avoids. Hampshire County Council is the authority for Rushmoor and Hart addresses, and it says its scaffolding applications come from the scaffolding companies on their customers' behalf.
What national guides say
HomeBuilding (Sep 2025) says Welsh slate on a typical three-bed semi might reach £18,000, and Which? (Nov 2025) lists £7,000 to £21,000 ex VAT across a three-bedroom re-roof. Those are general figures, and a listed roof with specialist materials and detail can sit well away from them.
After the survey you receive one total in writing, with VAT stated. Our roof replacement service covers listed and conservation-area homes with the right consent route in mind.
