Listed Buildings

Listed Buildings

From 4 November 2024, the legislative regime for listed buildings is fully separate in England and Wales.

Listed buildings in England

Purpose of listing in England

Listed building legislation is set out in Part I of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (P(LBCA)A 1990). The main purpose of listing is to protect buildings of special architectural or historic interest and their surroundings from changes which materially alter the importance of the buildings or their setting.

See Practice Note: Listed building regime and listed building consent in England—Purpose of listing.

Grading in England

Once a building is deemed suitable for listing, a decision will be made as to the grade of listing to apply to it. There are three types of listed status:

•
Grade I buildings are of exceptional interest
•
Grade II* are particularly important buildings of more than special interest
•
Grade II buildings are nationally important and of special interest

Although the grading system is non-statutory, it has consequences in how the building is treated in the planning system. See Practice Note: Listed building regime and listed building consent

To view the latest version of this document and thousands of others like it, sign-in with LexisNexis or register for a free trial.

TAKE A FREE TRIAL

Latest Planning News

Welsh Government announces £24m loan scheme for housing land development

The Welsh Government has allocated £24m in loan funding through its Land for Housing scheme to enable the development of more than 600 new homes across Wales. The funding supports land acquisition for both social and market housing developments, with loans being repaid and reinvested when construction funding is secured. The announcement highlights a previous £3m loan to Wales & West Housing for land in Grangetown, Cardiff, which led to the development of 100 affordable social rent homes. The scheme aims to contribute to the Welsh Government's target of delivering 20,000 new low carbon social homes during the current Senedd term.

Failure to publish section 106 agreement could put planning permission at risk (Greenfields (IOW) Ltd v Isle of Wight Council)

Planning analysis: In Greenfields, the Court of Appeal quashed a grant of planning permission on the ground that the authority failed to publish the section 106 planning obligation prior to granting planning permissionr). Publication of the heads of terms in the planning officer’s report did not constitute substantial compliance, as the heads of terms were not sufficiently detailed to allow the public to know the terms of the planning obligation and to comment on it if they chose to do so. Local planning authorities must publish a proposed or agreed planning obligation before granting planning permission, otherwise, the planning permission is liable to be quashed by the courts. However, it may be possible to avoid quashing if the authority can show that there was substantial compliance with the requirement, and no prejudice was caused. Written by Victoria Searle, principal associate at Browne Jacobson.

Planning weekly highlights—15 May 2025

This week's edition of Planning weekly highlights includes: a Court of Appeal case on the sequential test in retail planning; an amendment Order to change permitted development rights for off-street electric vehicle charging points, and air source heat pumps; and updated PPG on Crown Development and planning application procedures.

The interpretation of the sequential test in retail planning (Tesco v SMBC)

Planning analysis: The primary issue considered by the Court of Appeal in this judgment was whether a local planning authority misunderstood and misapplied the ‘sequential test’ in national and development plan policy for retail development when determining an application for planning permission for a new food store on a site neither in nor on the edge of a town centre. Paragraph 87 of the 2021 National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) (now para 91 of the updated 2024 version) requires local planning authorities to apply a sequential test with main town centre uses being located in town centres, then edge of centre locations, with out of centre sites being considered if suitable sites are not available. The Court of Appeal decision serves as an important reminder of the difference between policy application which is for the decision maker and policy interpretation which is for the courts. The court sets out its detailed interpretation of para 87 which will be of interest to those involved in retail planning. Written by Sarah Sutherland, practice development lawyer at Burges Salmon LLP.