Locally listed buildings

Find out what it means when a building is locally listed.

Locally listed buildings are historic buildings that have been judged to be of value to the local community. It helps owners, developers, and decision-makers recognise the building's significance, particularly how it contributes to the character and distinctiveness of the area. The whole of a building is covered under the local listing, however some parts of the building may be more important than others.

Differences between the statutory list and the local list  

Statutory list

For the statutory list, the government and Historic England decide which historic buildings meet the criteria.

These type of listed buildings include the following:

• have national designation rather than local
• they are graded on their importance to the country and are protected by law
• listed building consent is needed before certain works can be carried out 

Local list

With buildings on the local list, special permission to start any alterations or repairs isn't usually needed. However, when works need planning permission, the local listing helps to acknowledge the historical importance of a building. As a result, it becomes a material consideration in the planning process.

The effects of local listing

Local listing provides extra community-based consideration to the national designation. Although it doesn't allow additional planning controls, being locally listed means that a building's conservation as a local heritage asset is considered further. It becomes an objective of the National Planning Policy Framework and is a material consideration when deciding the outcome of a planning application.

Our policy

We encourage householders to repair original features where possible. However, when repairing isn't practical, we prefer original features to be replaced like-for-like to retain the building's character. As well as conserving the historic environment, this may also help the property value.

The local list process

In North Norfolk, locally listed buildings are mainly identified when reviewing conservation areas or when preparing appraisals and management proposals or plans. This is recognised as best practice, as these processes include public consultation and are part of a recognised plan-making process.

There are some important local buildings or structures that can lie outside conservation areas. Therefore, it is necessary to be flexible with the processes used to decide when to locally list a site. As a result, we will use one of the following scenarios to consider local listing: 

• an adopted Conservation Area Appraisal identifies a qualifying building or structure

• a planning application concludes that the building or structure should be included on the list

And:

• a request from a Parish or Town Council or other recognised community group

Is my building locally listed?

Use the planning constraints map to find out if a particular building is on our local list.