Free property check · England
Free Tower Hamlets permitted development checker
Could your home project use permitted development? Start with your full address and tell us what you want to build.
You do not need to know the planning route before you start. The check uses available public records and your project details to provide guidance, not a council decision.
About the planning data
Checked against 20.6 million UK planning applications on file across 420 planning authorities. Approval rates from 2,343,419 decisions we classified across 181 councils in England.
What are you checking?
Whether your proposed work may qualify for permitted development, needs a prior approval process or requires a planning application. The property and the complete proposal matter, including earlier additions and conditions on previous permissions.
Read how prior approval works and how planning timescales differ by route.
A postcode locates an area; it cannot establish rights for a particular house. Use your full property address in the checker.
Find guidance for your project
- Rear extensions and larger home extensions
- Side and wraparound extensions
- Loft conversions and dormers
- Garden rooms and outbuildings
- Garage conversions
- Porches
- Two-storey extensions
- Basements
For development beyond a home improvement, read our new build and change of use guides. Those projects have different eligibility tests and need a project-specific assessment.
Local checks in Tower Hamlets
Check the wording, map and effective date of any Article 4 direction, the property's planning conditions and whether designated land affects the relevant right. A restriction on one type of work does not automatically prohibit every alteration.
Use these resources for Tower Hamlets. Confirm the authority for your address if you are close to a boundary or the area has changed council.
- Tower Hamlets official website and planning information
- Search Tower Hamlets planning applications and decision notices
- Tower Hamlets planning authority boundary and source
- Find the planning authority for your postcode
We have not verified every local restriction for every address in Tower Hamlets. Confirm property-specific details against the authority's current records before relying on permitted development.
Our Tower Hamlets archive contains 6,748 classified home project decision records. Explore Tower Hamlets decisions by project type. These records mix application routes: an approval rate is not a permitted development eligibility score. See the coverage and methodology.
Permitted development restrictions in Tower Hamlets
Tower Hamlets publishes separate Article 4 datasets for residential-to-small-HMO changes and commercial-to-residential changes. The latter applies to mapped parts of the borough. A change-of-use direction should not be treated as proof that a particular house alteration needs an application; check the right and location together.
- Tower Hamlets Article 4 directions
- Tower Hamlets direction datasets
- Tower Hamlets conservation areas and map
- Tower Hamlets application validation requirements
Sources reviewed . Check the source maps, wording and effective dates against your property and proposed work.
What reviewed local decisions show
These examples use official planning records. Each identifies the decision date and links to the evidence reviewed. They are not Planning Approvals projects or a prediction for another property.
31 Birdsfield Lane: a rear dormer was prominent from another street
PA/25/00373 · APP/E5900/D/25/3368697 · Appeal dismissed, 9 September 2025
The proposed dormer faced Barge Lane within the Victoria Park Conservation Area. Its bulk would interrupt a largely unaltered terrace roofline and did not fit the neighbouring building’s roof. The inspector found no public benefit that outweighed the heritage harm.
What to check: Check views from streets behind the house as well as its front. A rear-facing roof addition can still be prominent in a conservation area; this was a planning appeal, not a PD certificate.
Read the appeal decision (PDF)
Related guidance: Loft conversions and PD
Check the planning register for the issued notice, exact conditions and any later appeal or revised application. A committee resolution is not a substitute for those documents.
Certificate records to investigate
Selected archive records, not a representative sample or a prediction for your address. The descriptions below are archive excerpts and may be shortened; read the original decision and plans before relying on them.
- PA/23/00611/NC · Recorded refused (2023)
Application for certificate of Lawfulness in respect of a proposed single storey side and rear extension and 2 new rooflights.
Open the council record for PA/23/00611/NC - PA/25/01991/NC · Recorded approved (2026)
Application for Certificate of Lawfulness in respect of proposed loft conversion within the existing roof line including new roof and roof balcony windows....
Open the council record for PA/25/01991/NC
A certificate concerns the lawfulness of the scheme described. Another property's certificate does not establish your permitted development rights. Read the archive's coverage and limitations.
Do you need a permitted development certificate?
A proposed lawful development certificate gives formal confirmation that the development described is lawful. It is optional and is different from prior approval or a planning application. Read our lawful development certificate guide.
The free check does not grant permission or replace a certificate. Check official certificate guidance and the government's explanation of planning routes.