Yes, for most houses, because most of Shepperton was built too recently for anyone to have protected it. A few dozen buildings are listed. Six conservation areas sit in and around the village. Hundreds of planning applications go in every year. The rules bite in the old riverside corners and ease off across the post-war streets.
Shepperton has 49 listed buildings: one at grade I, three at grade II* and 45 at grade II. Listing covers the whole building, inside and out, so even small changes such as replacement windows, a moved internal wall or a new flue need listed building consent from the council on top of any planning permission. Grade II is the ordinary tier and still strict, and grade II* and grade I bring Historic England into the conversation. That makes 49 specific buildings, and the useful question for a buyer is whether the house in question is one of them. There is exactly one grade I building in the village, and its owners will not be getting a skylight.
Six conservation areas fall in and around Shepperton: Shepperton itself, Lower Halliford, Upper Halliford, the Manygate Lane Estate, and Walton's Church Street-Bridge Street and Riverside areas across the river. Inside one, the council takes a closer interest in anything visible from the street, including demolition, front extensions, roof changes and some tree work, and some of the freedoms that apply elsewhere are narrower. Upper Halliford also sits in the Metropolitan Green Belt, which is a separate brake on building outwards. Manygate Lane is a twentieth-century estate, so in this village a modern house can come with a conservation officer attached.
One scheduled monument falls within the wider area, the strictest tier of protection, which matters only if your land runs up against it.
Spelthorne's planning register lists 1,598 applications for Shepperton between April 2024 and July 2026, 649 of them in the last twelve months. That is a village busy altering its houses, whatever the conservation maps suggest. The register shows how often people ask, and says nothing about how often they get a yes.
For an ordinary house outside the conservation areas, permitted development rights often cover a modest rear extension, a loft conversion or an outbuilding without a full planning application, within national size limits. Flats, listed buildings and houses in conservation areas have narrower rights or none, and some plots have had permitted development removed by an earlier planning condition. Ask Spelthorne Borough Council to confirm whether the house has its permitted development rights intact, and get a lawful development certificate for anything you plan to rely on them for. It costs less than an argument after the builders have started.
Shepperton gives you a middling amount of freedom: the post-war and later streets leave plenty of room to extend, while the listed buildings and the conservation areas around the old village and the Hallifords tighten things considerably. Which of the two your house sits in decides most of the answer.