Yes, but check the map before you call the builder. The area around Larkfield carries more history than its semis let on. Listed buildings run well into three figures. Conservation areas reach double figures. Most homes can still grow; a minority will need the paperwork done properly and slowly.
Historic England's list puts 158 listed buildings in and around Larkfield: 8 at Grade I, 14 at Grade II* and 136 at Grade II. Listing covers the whole building, inside and out, so a listed home needs listed building consent for alterations that affect its character, including changes that would normally need no permission at all. Replacing windows without asking is how owners of listed homes end up paying twice. Most of those buildings sit in the older villages around the edges rather than among Larkfield's post-war streets, but the count is high enough that a period house here should be assumed listed until the register says otherwise.
There are 10 conservation areas in the surrounding area, including Larkfield Church, Ditton, Aylesford, East Malling Village and Clare Park and Blacklands. Inside a conservation area, some work that would be permitted development elsewhere needs planning permission, and demolition, front-facing alterations and trees attract closer attention from the council. The boundary line matters more than the age of the house, so check which side of it the address falls on.
Three scheduled monuments sit in the wider area. That is the strictest protection tier, and it mainly matters to anyone whose land borders one.
None of this has stopped anyone. Tonbridge and Malling's planning records show 2,014 applications in the area between April 2024 and June 2026, and 864 of them in the most recent twelve months. That is live evidence that people here extend, convert and alter their homes as a matter of routine. The figures say nothing about how many were approved, so read them as demand, not as a promise.
For a typical post-war semi outside a conservation area and not on the list, permitted development rights may cover a modest rear extension or loft conversion without a full planning application, subject to the national limits and, for some work, a prior approval from the council. Inside a conservation area, or on a listed building, assume you need consent and ask the council before you ask the architect. Estate agents will call a property "ripe for extension". The planning officer decides whether it is.
Larkfield gives you less freedom to extend than its ordinary streets suggest, because the heritage protection around it is dense and patchy. On an unlisted semi outside the boundaries, it is a normal planning conversation. Anywhere else, the house belongs partly to the rulebook.