Conservation area checker: is this house in a conservation area, listed, or under a TPO or Article 4?

Enter a postcode and this check reads the national planning data for the four heritage controls that decide what you can change about a house: whether the map point is inside a conservation area (and if not, how far the nearest boundary is), every listed building within 700 m with its grade, tree-preservation zones within 250 m, and any Article 4 direction at the point. It says plainly when a council has not published a layer, because on this platform a blank from an unpublished council is not a clear result.

No signup. Conservation areas and listed buildings within 700 m, tree-preservation zones within 250 m and Article 4 direction areas at the point, from planning.data.gov.uk (Historic England and the councils that publish), paged in full and measured to the boundary. England; Open Government Licence v3.0.

This check runs on screen, no signup. The full property report is £9.99 Lite / £24.99 Complete. One report, one price, no subscription.

Why one heritage check instead of four

A buyer in a period street usually has one question: "what will I be allowed to change?", and the answer is spread across four separate designations that different bodies publish. A conservation area is designated by the council and restricts demolition, some extensions and work to trees. A listed building is designated nationally by Historic England and needs listed building consent for almost any alteration that affects its character, inside as well as out. A tree preservation order protects specific trees or groups. An Article 4 direction removes permitted development rights in a defined area, which is how a council stops uPVC windows appearing on a Georgian terrace. Each one on its own is a partial answer; this page reads all four at the same postcode point and puts them on one card.

What the result actually measures

Every layer is read from planning.data.gov.uk, the national planning-data platform run by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, which aggregates Historic England's national datasets and the datasets each council publishes. The check does not ask "is there anything in a box around the postcode?" That is the question that produced "in (or beside) a conservation area" on older tools. It fetches every record within the radius, follows the platform's paging until the count matches, and then tests the postcode's map point against each boundary polygon. So a conservation area comes back as one of three things: the point is inside it, the point is outside and this many metres from its boundary, or no area exists within 700 m. The same containment test tells you when the point falls inside a listed building's mapped footprint, or inside an Article 4 area.

LayerRadiusPublisherCoverage
Conservation area700 m, with containmentCouncils, plus Historic England's compilationPartial: the card says whether this council publishes
Listed building700 m, with grade and footprintHistoric England (National Heritage List)National
Tree-preservation zone / protected tree250 mCouncilsPartial: the card says whether this council publishes
Article 4 direction area700 m, with containmentCouncilsPartial: the card says whether this council publishes

The honest blank: when a council has not published

This is the part most heritage checkers get wrong. Listed buildings are complete nationally, but conservation areas, tree preservation orders and Article 4 directions reach the platform only when each planning authority publishes them, and many planning authorities have not yet published them. A check that prints "no conservation area" for a postcode in a council that has published nothing is printing the absence of data as the absence of a designation. So before the result is shown, the check asks the platform whether the postcode's council has any record at all in each of those three datasets, and labels the row accordingly: a real zero from a publishing council, or "unchecked: ask the council" from one that has not. The council's planning department and the CON29 local search remain the legal record in every case.

What each designation means for a buyer

Inside a conservation area. Expect tighter control over demolition, extensions visible from the street, roof materials, windows and doors (especially where an Article 4 direction backs it up), and six weeks' notice to the council before work on any tree over 75 mm stem diameter. Conservation areas protect value as often as they constrain it; the risk is a plan that assumes permitted development rights the area has removed.

On a listed-building footprint. Treat the house as listed until your solicitor confirms otherwise. Listed building consent is needed for works that affect the special interest, which routinely includes internal alterations, replacement windows and extensions; unauthorised work is a criminal offence and the liability passes to a new owner. Budget for traditional materials, a specialist survey and a specialist insurer.

Listed buildings nearby. A listed neighbour matters for the setting: a planning application next to one is assessed for its effect on the listed building, and curtilage structures (walls, outbuildings) can be listed with it. The count and the grades tell you how historic the immediate street is.

Inside an Article 4 area. Some permitted development rights have been removed. Which ones is in the council's direction. In a conservation area the usual targets are front elevations, windows, doors, roofs and boundary walls; in an HMO Article 4 area the target is converting a family house to a small shared house without permission.

Inside a tree-preservation zone. The protected trees on the plot are mapped by the council's order; cutting, topping or lopping one without consent carries fines up to £20,000. Where a tree is close to the house, the ground-stability picture matters too, because felling a protected tree on shrinkable clay can cause heave.

Before you offer

  • Save the result and ask the council's conservation officer to confirm the position of the exact property against the boundary, not the postcode point.
  • If the house is listed, ask the seller for the consent history of every alteration since listing; ask your surveyor to flag anything that looks unconsented.
  • If you plan an extension, loft conversion or new windows, get pre-application advice before you commit. In a conservation area or Article 4 area the answer can change the price you should pay.
  • Ask the tree officer for the TPO plan if a protected tree stands within falling or root distance of the house.

Related checks

The single-layer checks remain for anyone who wants one answer: the listed building check, the tree preservation order check and the Article 4 checker. Read our conservation-area buyer guide for the decision, and the flood-history check for the other register a period home needs read before an offer. The paid report's "Heritage & what you can change" and "Planning & land designations" sections print these designations for one address alongside the EPC, sold prices and the hazard screen; Complete (£24.99), one-off.

Source: planning.data.gov.uk (Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government, Historic England and contributing local planning authorities): conservation-area, listed-building, tree-preservation-zone, tree and article-4-direction-area datasets. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. England only; coverage of council-published layers is incomplete and stated per council in the result.

Frequently asked questions

Enter the postcode above. The check reads every conservation area published to planning.data.gov.uk within 700 m of the postcode's map point and tests the point against each boundary polygon, so it can say "inside X" or "N m from the boundary of X" rather than "near". The local planning authority's own map is the legal record, and a postcode point is not a property boundary. A house a few metres from a line can sit on either side of it.
Only if the council has published its conservation areas to the national platform, and many have not. The result card says whether this council publishes. Where it does not, any record shown comes from Historic England's national compilation, which is incomplete, and "none found" should be read as unchecked. Ask the council's planning department; conservation-area status is also a standard conveyancing (CON29) question.
The listed-building layer here comes from the National Heritage List for England, which is complete nationally, so a listed building within 700 m of the point will appear with its grade. If the point falls inside a listed building's mapped footprint the check says so and names it. The list entry on historicengland.org.uk is the legal record; grades I, II* and II all carry the same consent requirement.
Grade I buildings are of exceptional interest (about 2.5% of listings), Grade II* are particularly important (about 5.8%), and Grade II are of special interest (about 92%). The grade changes how closely proposals are scrutinised, not whether consent is needed: any work that affects the character of a listed building needs listed building consent at every grade, inside and out.
It screens the tree-preservation-zone and individually recorded tree datasets within 250 m of the point, the same datasets the TPO check uses. These are published council by council, so the card states whether this council has published any. A tree in a conservation area is protected even without a TPO: you must give the council six weeks' notice before working on it. The council's tree officer confirms whether a specific tree is protected.
An Article 4 direction removes permitted development rights in a defined area, commonly in conservation areas, to stop changes to windows, doors, roofs or front gardens that would otherwise not need permission, and in some towns to stop houses being converted to small HMOs. The check tests whether the point is inside a published Article 4 area and names the nearest if not. Which rights are removed is set out in the council's direction, so always read it.
No. planning.data.gov.uk collects from English planning authorities and Historic England only. Scotland's conservation areas and listed buildings (categories A, B and C) are on Historic Environment Scotland's portal, Wales's on Cadw's map, Northern Ireland's with the Department for Communities. The check says so for a non-England postcode rather than printing an English blank.
The report's Heritage & what you can change section prints the conservation-area position, every conservation area within 700 m with the distance to its boundary and every listed building within 700 m with grade, distance and listing date, and its Planning & land designations section adds green belt, National Landscape, national park, scheduled monuments, World Heritage Site and the brownfield register, and the heritage card states whether the point is inside an Article 4 area, alongside the EPC, sold prices and the hazard screen for the address.

Related tools

Listed Building CheckTree Preservation Order (TPO) CheckArticle 4 Direction CheckerFlood History CheckHouse Check

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