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The Rules in Plain English
Permitted development means the government has pre approved this type of work nationally, so you skip the planning process entirely. The conditions for a wall mounted charger are simple. The unit must be smaller than 0.2 cubic metres, roughly the size of a shoebox stack, and every home charger on the market passes with room to spare. The property cannot be a scheduled monument. And the charger cannot sit within the grounds of a listed building.
Older guides mention rules about chargers facing the road or sitting within two metres of a highway. Those restrictions have been removed from the current regulations. Size and heritage status are what matter now.
The Exceptions Worth Knowing
Listed buildings are the big one. Permitted development does not apply within the curtilage of a listed building, so you need planning permission and listed building consent before installing. We handle the paperwork on these, it is slower but rarely refused for a sensitively positioned charger.
Conservation areas are usually fine, unless your council has issued an Article 4 direction removing permitted development rights locally. A quick check with the local planning authority settles it, and we do that as part of the survey.
Post mounted chargers on a pillar follow slightly different rules. Within a home’s grounds the post must stay under 1.6 metres tall, with one post per parking space. Again, standard products comply.
RELATED: Can you get a grant for a home EV charger?
Renting or Leasehold? Different Question
Planning permission and permission from your landlord are separate things. Tenants and leaseholders need written consent from the landlord or freeholder before fixing a charger to the building, even where planning rules are satisfied. The good news is the EV Chargepoint Grant gives landlords £500 per socket worth of reasons to say yes, and we can supply the technical details that make that conversation easy.
