Extensions and alterations

Most changes to your home will need householder planning permission.

Some works and extensions to houses do not need planning permission, due to permitted development rights. These rights mean certain extensions may be built without planning permission. There are strict limits to this.

Installing an EV charger if you park on the road

If you live in a property where there is no area which can be lawfully used for off-street parking, which is often the case for terraced properties where parking is on-street only, then you will need planning permission for any type of EV charger.

If you need to install a cable channel through the pavement to facilitate this please apply to Suffolk County Council for your EV channel license.

Once you have obtained this, you should apply for Householder planning permission from the District Council. When filling in the application form, you should sign Certificate B and serve notice on any landowners whose land is included in your red line, including Suffolk County Council.

Apply for Householder planning permission

The timescale for determination is 6 to 8 weeks.

Apply for planning permission

This will cost £272.

Installing an EV charger if you park lawfully off-road

Schedule 2, Part 2 of the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015 (as amended): Class D - electrical outlet for recharging vehicles

If you park in an area lawfully used for off-street parking, it is likely that the installation of an EV home charger will fall under permitted development rights.

As such no planning application is required for its installation, providing it does not:

  • exceed 0.2 cubic metres
  • face onto and be within two metres of a highway
  • lie within a site designated as a scheduled monument
  • lie within the curtilage of a listed building

Schedule 2, Part 2 of the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015 (as amended): Class E - electrical upstand for recharging vehicles

When installing an upstand with a mounted electrical charging outlet, either at your home or elsewhere, within an area lawfully used for off-street parking, the upstand and outlet must not:

  • exceed 2.3 metres in height from the level of the surface used for the parking of vehicles. This limit is 1.6 metres where in the curtilage of a dwellinghouse or block of flats
  • be within two metres of a highway
  • be within a site designated as a scheduled monument
  • be within the curtilage of a listed building
  • result in more than one upstand being provided for each parking space
For both Class D and Class E, when the electrical outlet is no longer required as a charging point for electric vehicles, the wall (on which the outlet was mounted) or the land (on which the upstand was placed) must be returned to its previous condition (prior to the installation being carried out) as soon as possible.

Useful links and information

Apply for planning permission

For further questions, or if you need planning permission and would like advice about the acceptability of your proposal, complete our Pre-Application Enquiry Form

Please provide as much information about your proposal as possible. A full list of the documents you need to submit can be found below on our Pre-Application Documents page