Do I need planning permission for a fence, wall or gate?

This is one of the few questions where the planning rule really is simple, and where people still get caught — usually by the lower limit at the front, by a covenant on a newer estate, or by not realising a listed building's boundary walls are themselves listed.

Step by step

1. Establish whether it adjoins a highway.A lower height limit applies to a wall, fence or gate next to a highway used by vehicles, or next to the footway of such a highway. That is why front boundaries are the usual problem and rear ones rarely are.
2. Take the current height limits from the council.Limits exist for the general case and for the highway case, and they are measured to the top of the structure from the natural ground level on the higher side. Take the figures from the Planning Portal or your council rather than from memory.
3. Check whether trellis counts.Height is generally measured to the top of the whole structure including anything added to it, so trellis fixed to a fence usually counts towards the limit rather than sitting outside it. Ask the council if you are close to the line.
4. Check for designations and directions.In a conservation area, front boundary treatments are a common target for an Article 4 direction. On a listed building, walls, railings and gates within the curtilage are frequently listed with it, and altering them needs listed building consent.
5. Check the deeds and estate covenants.Modern estates very often prohibit front boundary fences and hedges above a low height by covenant. That is enforceable by whoever holds the benefit, entirely independently of the council.
6. Establish whose boundary it is before touching anything.Ownership of the boundary structure is a title question, not a planning one, and altering a neighbour's fence without permission is the most common neighbour dispute there is.
7. Check for visibility and highway issues at a driveway.A wall or hedge that blocks visibility at a vehicle access can be a highway matter as well as a planning one, and the highway authority is a separate body from planning.
8. Apply if you are over the limit.It is a householder application and it is usually straightforward. Building over the limit and waiting to see is the expensive alternative.

Tips

• Hedges are not fences. Planning height limits generally do not apply to hedges, but high-hedge legislation gives neighbours a formal complaints route about evergreen hedges that block light.
• Retaining walls are structural and can be building regulations work as well as planning work, particularly where they retain a significant height of ground or support a highway.
• Measuring from the higher side is what catches people on sloping plots. A fence that is compliant from your garden may not be from your neighbour's.

Common mistakes

• Adding trellis on top of a fence at the height limit — The addition normally counts towards the overall height, so a compliant fence becomes non-compliant development without anything obvious having changed.
• Assuming a rear-garden rule applies at the front — The lower limit next to a highway is the single most breached boundary rule, and front boundaries are the most visible thing a council ever gets complaints about.

Questions people ask