If you need a stairlift fitting and live in Birmingham, you may wonder what the planning situation is. Will you need to get planning permission? Will it be harder in certain areas or if you live in a listed building?
As with any modification to your home, it is important to establish what the situation is and seek guidance that will help you.
The answer in most cases is that you will not need planning permission as it is only a minor modification and is inside your home anyway, so it won’t have any visual impact on the surrounding area. This makes the situation similar to ‘permitted development rights’ that allow small developments like a conservatory outside.
Permission may need to be sought if more than a minor modification is needed that alters the structural integrity of the building, but this won’t apply in most cases.
Listed buildings can be a bit more tricky. Listed Building Permission is likely to be required, but the good news is that with sensitive design you can get the permission and installation carried out.
Birmingham has nearly 2,000 listed buildings, so the question of whether a stairlift can be fitted will have arisen many times. Most of these are not residential, of course: they include cathedrals and churches, office blocks, libraries, the Town Hall, law courts and educational buildings. But there are also homes, even if some, like Aston Hall, are exceptional.
There are also 29 conservation areas in Birmingham, which can impact planning permission for external changes as they need to be in character with the area, but that is not a consideration for anything indoors. However, some of these do contain some very old buildings, which means some will be listed.
Overall, getting a stairlift fitted is not something people often struggle to get planning permission for, but it always makes sense to check with the council.
