BeforeIBuyHonest. Maybe too honest.
№ 07 / 09 · Planning

Can I extend a house in Seaview?

For anyone buying or renting in Seaview.

Yes, for most properties here, and within the usual rules. The village carries 24 listed buildings and one scheduled monument. There are no conservation areas inside the boundary. The other roughly 1,200 dwellings sit under the same national planning rules that apply anywhere in England. Around 87 planning applications were lodged across the village in the past twelve months, which tells you the system is functioning rather than blocked.

All 24 of the listed buildings here are Grade II, the lowest of the three statutory protection grades. None is Grade I, and none is in the higher Grade II star tier. That is the milder end of the heritage spectrum, but it still has real consequences for the owners of the named properties. External alterations need listed-building consent on top of any planning permission. Materials and methods are subject to approval. The bar for replacement windows, doors, render and roof coverings is higher than on an unprotected property, and the refurbishment budget tends to include specialist trades. The one scheduled monument carries its own separate consent regime, but those rules attach to the monument itself rather than to ordinary houses next door, except where a house sits within the monument's setting.

For the majority of homes, which are not on the list, the practical position is what you would expect of any residential area without a conservation designation. Most owners can replace windows in matching materials, paint exteriors, lay a patio, build a single-storey rear extension within permitted-development limits, and convert a loft without entering the listed-building consent system. Larger or two-storey extensions, anything that crosses a height boundary, anything that changes the use of the property, and anything within the curtilage of a listed neighbour will still need a full planning application from the council. Owners of a property sitting in the high-probability flood zone, or on a postcode rated high-risk for surface water, will also find that any substantial scheme attracts harder questions from both planning and building control. The 87 applications submitted across the village in the past twelve months cover the full range, from minor householder extensions to larger schemes, and 87 applications across roughly 1,200 households is a healthy churn rather than a sleeping market. None of which removes the basic risk of any planning application, which is that the neighbours have an opinion and the council has a clipboard.

For most owners here, extending or altering a home is a normal planning question rather than a heritage one. The constraints land on a specific 24 properties and on the immediate setting of one scheduled monument. The rest of the village operates under the same rules as the rest of England, with no extra heritage overlay holding things up.

Sources: Environment Agency · Local council planning registers · Historic England

Data to May 2026 · Figures checked 26 June 2026 (what this means)