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Planning consideration

Listed building outlines

The boundary of the area relating to a listed building which is protected because it has special architectural or historic interest

Important

We are currently designing this consideration. You can view the latest updates here.

Design stage
On the platform
Tags

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Github
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Synonyms
No synonyms added
Legislation
Ordnance Survey declaration
Presumption to publish

See further information about this OS declaration

Expected number of records
800,000
Frequency of updates
Fortnightly
Useful links
Technical specification
View specification

Background information

Each planning consideration we work on passes through the stages of our design process, where we research and answer specific questions to help us collect more information.

Backlog

  • Who asked for 'Listed building outlines' data?

    Open Systems Lab - Planning Software, specifically as constraint in PlanX

  • What is the driver for the request?

    Specific user requirement

  • Which 2024 focus area does the request support?

    • Modern planning software

Screen

  • What is the 'Listed building outlines' consideration?

    A building which is protected because it has special architectural or historic interest.

  • Is there legislation that defines 'Listed building outlines'?

    Yes

    • What is the legislation that defines 'Listed building outlines'?

      Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990, Chapter 1

    • What is the specific part of the legislation that describes how a 'Listed building outlines' gets designated?

      There is no legislation covering how a listed building gets designated. A web page produced by Historic England can be found here which outlines the process and the different steps in designating a listing.

      Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990, Section 1 -

      One part of the designation process is highlighted in this section of legislation, being the need for the SoS to consult with “The Commission” (Historic England) and other people / bodies who have special knowledge or interest in the building.

    • What is the specific part of the legislation that requires the publication of 'Listed building outlines'?

      Chapter 1, Section 2 - “Publication of Lists”
      (4) The Secretary of State shall keep available for public inspection free of charge at reasonable hours and at a convenient place, copies of all lists and amendments of lists, compiled, approved or made by him under section 1. (5) Every authority with whom copies of any list or amendments are deposited under this section shall similarly keep available copies of so much of any such list or amendment as relates to buildings within their area. (6) For the purposes of subsection (5) the Commission shall be taken to be an authority whose area is Greater London.

      Chapter 1, Section 1 provides more specificity around the SoS and “the Commission” compiling the list. “The Secretary of State shall compile lists of such buildings, or approve, with or without modifications, such lists compiled by the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England (in this Act referred to as “the Commission”)”

  • Who, in law, is responsible for the planning consideration or makes decisions about 'Listed building outlines'?

    SoS for DCMS - “the Secretary of State shall compile lists of such buildings.”

  • Which organisations do we think should publish the data?

    • Historic England

  • Is the Listed building outlines a trigger?

    Yes

    • What needs to be done because Listed building outlines has acted as the trigger?

      • Heritage statement
      • Structural survey
      • Lighting assessment
      • Archaeological assessment
      • Listed building consent

  • Is the Listed building outlines something to consult during plan making?

    Yes

    • Provide information about when Listed building outlines is used during plan making

      Further research is required to confirm whether listed building data would be consulted in the completion of listed building consent applications.

  • Is there any Listed building outlines data already available?

    Yes

  • Do we think the data should come from a single source?

    Listed building point data is nationally available through Historic England. Polygon data was commenced by Historic England for all listings after the 4th April 2011, and as such this dataset will always have gaps. This remaining data will not come from a single source, it will be down to all LPAs to produce this data individually.

  • Will a data standard be required?

    Yes

Research

  • Do we understand the lifecycle of a Listed building outlines?

    Yes

    • Document a stage of the high-level lifecycle of a Listed building outlines

  • Do we understand how the data is created/produced?

    We have not explicitly asked Historic England how they produce their data yet. It is assumed based off of research and our initial conversation with them that they get the relevant point data from applications for listing, but it is yet unclear as to how they get their polygon data. When it comes to LPAs producing their Listed Building Polygon data individually, we expect that they will use: - reference values from the Historic England dataset - point data to identify the listed buildings which require polygons - OS basemap data from Mastermap to complete their polygons as accurately as possible

  • Where will or should the data be used?

    Knowing about a listed building will impact the information an applicant will need to provide to gain planning consent.

    • Certificate of Immunity
    • Building Preservation Notice
    • Local plans - Listed buildings are referenced regularly in local plans (also under the guise of 'heritage assets'), so we think that this consideration feeds into the process of creating a local plan.

  • Who are the statutory consultees for Listed building outlines?

    Historic England

  • Other than the statutory consultees who are the primary users of Listed building outlines? How do we expect them to use Listed building outlines?

    Local planning authorities, policy teams, DM teams, developers, applicants

  • What are the planning needs for this data?

    There are a number of different planning needs for having listed building outlines on the platform.

    • For applicants / developers / site promoters / landowners - knowing about the presence of a listed building will impact the type of application which has to be submitted - e.g. either standard planning application, or listed building consent. The proximity to a listed building might also impact the information an applicant will need to provide to gain planning consent.
    • For a policy team within a local planning authority, the presence of a listed building may impact upon the site allocation process, as it is likely the heritage designations are considered when assessing sites.
    • For a DM team within a local planning authority, knowing the presence of listed buildings will allow for them to make decisions on the type of planning application that needs to be submitted, as well as whether any mitigation or design amendments needs to be made.

  • Who are the types of users who might benefit from having access to Listed building outlines data?

    There are a number of different planning needs for having listed building outlines on the platform.

    • For applicants / developers / site promoters / landowners - knowing about the presence of a listed building will impact the type of application which has to be submitted - e.g. either standard planning application, or listed building consent. The proximity to a listed building might also impact the information an applicant will need to provide to gain planning consent.
    • For a policy team within a local planning authority, the presence of a listed building may impact upon the site allocation process, as it is likely the heritage designations are considered when assessing sites.
    • For a DM team within a local planning authority, knowing the presence of listed buildings will allow for them to make decisions on the type of planning application that needs to be submitted, as well as whether any mitigation or design amendments needs to be made.

  • What are some potential uses of Listed building outlines data?

    There are a number of different planning needs for having listed building outlines on the platform.

    • For applicants / developers / site promoters / landowners - knowing about the presence of a listed building will impact the type of application which has to be submitted - e.g. either standard planning application, or listed building consent. The proximity to a listed building might also impact the information an applicant will need to provide to gain planning consent.
    • For a policy team within a local planning authority, the presence of a listed building may impact upon the site allocation process, as it is likely the heritage designations are considered when assessing sites.
    • For a DM team within a local planning authority, knowing the presence of listed buildings will allow for them to make decisions on the type of planning application that needs to be submitted, as well as whether any mitigation or design amendments needs to be made.

  • What's the value of adding Listed building outlines data to the platform?

    There are a number of different planning needs for having listed building outlines on the platform.

    • For applicants / developers / site promoters / landowners - knowing about the presence of a listed building will impact the type of application which has to be submitted - e.g. either standard planning application, or listed building consent. The proximity to a listed building might also impact the information an applicant will need to provide to gain planning consent.
    • For a policy team within a local planning authority, the presence of a listed building may impact upon the site allocation process, as it is likely the heritage designations are considered when assessing sites.
    • For a DM team within a local planning authority, knowing the presence of listed buildings will allow for them to make decisions on the type of planning application that needs to be submitted, as well as whether any mitigation or design amendments needs to be made.

  • From what we have learnt so far are there any risks to making Listed building outlines data available?

    Historic England has said that if there is a listing that started before 4th April 2011, that this would not be polygonised. The risk of using Historic England’s data for polygons is that it will likely always be incomplete.

    The issue is mainly in the curtilage and data accuracy. If the curtilage is incorrectly mapped and a decision is made based on this incorrect data, that becomes a criminal offence. If a curtilage is mapped beyond initial boundaries under the mindset of “better safe than sorry”, this will create much more work for LPAs as more applications for listed building consent will be “required” based on this data.

    To minimise this risk, curtilage would need to be properly defined, and then every listing in England would have to be independently assessed for accurate curtilage decisions before mapping. This is extremely costly and time consuming, in an environment where LPAs already struggle for resources. Historic England have also mentioned that they would struggle for resources to update the register in line with the amendment cases, which would also impact the SoS’ workload in confirming the new listing descriptions.

    As a result of ongoing work with HM Land Registry, we have recently produced a joint specification for listed buildings. The data we are asking for for planning purposes is similar to data they are asking for to satisfy a conveyancing need, so by joining up this should reduce the burden on local authorities. Their ask of curtilage is more well defined as their programme is more mature, and so we plan on sharing these geometries.

3 updates

  • Paul Downey (24 March 2025)

    This consideration has been conflated between listed buildings as administered by Historic England, and the area which needs to be considered for planning applications. These separate considerations have different levels of understanding, and the boundary of the listing will be different to the outline, which is synonymous with the curtilage and the area for Local Land Charge.

  • Kieran Wint (05 September 2024)

    As per some FAQs published by Historic England, this data is updated on a fortnightly basis.

    However, we think that as we collect more listed building data from local planning authorities, the update frequency of the data will likely change to ad hoc, as it is likely that data will get updated when there are changes to make and this is unlikely to align across all local authorities.

  • Kieran Wint (04 September 2024)

    As per some research we did, summarised in this blog on an analysis of local plans and local area requirements, we're confident that this consideration acts as an INPUT to the process of creating a local plan.

Last updated: 2025-05-14 07:00:40