Yes, for most houses, with less paperwork than you'd fear. No conservation area covers the village. Only a few dozen buildings are listed. The neighbours file planning applications by the hundred. The real limits here are your budget and your plot, not the heritage lobby.
Historic England's list covers 45 buildings in the area: 1 at Grade I, 1 at Grade II\* and 43 at Grade II. Listing protects the whole building, inside and out, so changes that affect its character need listed building consent as well as any planning permission, and the rules are strict. For those 45 addresses, an extension is a negotiation with the building's history, and the building usually wins. For everything else, and that means most of Marden, listing doesn't come into it. The mapped area has no conservation area either, so the extra layer of control that makes period villages hard to alter doesn't apply here.
The neighbours clearly know this. The area logged 1,385 planning applications between April 2024 and June 2026, and 550 in the last twelve months alone. Those are submissions, not approvals, and the count says nothing about how many succeeded. What it does show is that building work here is routine. The sound of a cement mixer is part of the background, like the trains, and a new rear extension three doors down tells you nothing unusual about the street.
In practice, an ordinary house that isn't listed and isn't in a conservation area starts from the standard national position. Some modest extensions and alterations can go ahead under permitted development, and anything bigger needs a planning application to Maidstone. Check whether the property's permitted development rights have been removed by an earlier consent, confirm it isn't one of the listed 45, and get the local planning authority's view before you commit to the kitchen of your dreams. A lawful development certificate costs far less than knocking down something you shouldn't have built.
Freedom to extend is one of Marden's real advantages: most homes face nothing beyond ordinary planning, and only the listed minority needs a lot more care.