Do I need planning permission for a bathroom?
Almost never. Planning permission governs a building's external appearance and use, not its internal rooms — a bathroom renovation, a new en-suite, even moving a bathroom entirely needs no planning application in an ordinary house. The exceptions: listed buildings, and flats whose lease requires the freeholder's consent.
Planning and building regulations get conflated constantly, and the distinction is simple: planning asks whether you may change what the building is and looks like; building regulations ask whether the work is safely done. Internal bathroom work is invisible to planning — no application, no fee, no eight-week wait.
The two real exceptions. Listed buildings: internal alterations to a listed house need listed building consent, and that includes bathroom work that touches historic fabric — relevant to a handful of properties in Greenwich's conservation core and around Cheam village. Flats: not a planning matter but a contractual one — most leases require the freeholder's licence for works that alter services or wet-area extents, which functions like a private planning system.
One planning edge case worth knowing: a new soil vent pipe on an external wall technically alters the elevation. In practice it falls under permitted development for houses, but in conservation areas — parts of Greenwich, Wimbledon Village, Carshalton — we route new stacks internally or to rear elevations to keep the question from arising.
More in regulations & practicalities, or browse all 38 questions on the FAQ index.
Price your project
Two quick steps. We reply within one working day.
No account, no obligation. We only use this to prepare your quote.
Ready to price your bathroom?
Tell us the room and the rough plan — we reply within one working day with an honest cost bracket, then a free home survey and a fixed written quote.