Does air conditioning need planning permission?

What conditions apply to a home in England?

The Planning Portal and Part 14 of the General Permitted Development Order set these out, and you have to clear all of them:

These rules relaxed on 29 May 2025, when the one-metre boundary gap disappeared and air-to-air units came into scope. A planning condition or Article 4 direction can still remove them.

How does the 37 dB noise limit work?

Under MCS 020(a), the result has to be 37 dB(A) or lower at a point one metre from the middle of any neighbouring door or window serving a habitable room, and each affected point must pass. Inputs include sound power, distance, anything standing between the two, and nearby hard surfaces. Tuck a unit into a corner and the reflections make the sum worse than on an open wall.

Harlow Council separately looks into some noise complaints, and it suggests speaking to the neighbour first. Better to choose the position well at the outset than move it later.

Which parts of Harlow are conservation areas?

Ten, according to Harlow Council: Churchgate Street, Harlow Garden Village Estate, Harlow Mill and Old Road North, Harlowbury, Mark Hall North, Netteswellbury, Old Harlow, Puffers Green, Town Park Netteswell Cross and Tye Green. In each, you lose the option of a wall or roof facing a road, and of anywhere closer to a bordering road than the building. A corner plot can therefore lose its side as well as its front.

Which Harlow streets have Article 4 directions?

An Article 4 direction removes particular permitted development rights, so ordinary work then needs an application. Harlow Council has them for:

• Old Harlow, since 1 June 2012: front-facing work at named addresses in Bury Road, New Road, the High Street and Old Road
• Mark Hall North, since 28 October 2023: every house in the conservation area, including "other alterations"
• Churchgate Street, since 4 March 2026: every house in the conservation area, again including "other alterations"
• Morley Grove, listed separately by the council

None of the council's pages names heat pumps or air conditioning, and many items only bite where they can be seen from a road or pavement. So if this is your street, ring the planning team before you commit, even for a position at the back.

What about listed buildings such as The Lawn?

Within the grounds of a listed building, permitted development falls away, so expect to need an application for an outdoor unit. Listed building consent is a second, separate step covering the building itself, down to the hole for the pipes. The Lawn, Gibberd's 1951 block of flats and Grade II listed since 1998, is the local example people know. Going ahead without consent can be a crime, so talk to the conservation officer first.

Do the rules cover shops, offices and flats?

Houses and blocks of flats are covered. Shops, offices and other business premises are not, so ask the planning team before ordering. In a flat or rented home, planning is only half the question anyway, as the freeholder or landlord has to agree as well. Our guide to air conditioning in a flat covers that half.

What if you are still not sure?

Apply to the council for a Lawful Development Certificate, its formal confirmation that a proposal needs no planning permission. It is useful when a position is close to the line, and again when you sell. Treat this page as our reading of the rules on the date shown above and not as legal advice, since the final decision is the council's.