Planning permission in Kensington and Chelsea
Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea is the local planning authority for Kensington and Chelsea, a London borough in Greater London. Below is what its official planning data shows — and a free check for any Kensington and Chelsea postcode.
What Kensington and Chelsea has published
| Dataset · national planning data index | Published |
|---|---|
| Conservation areas | 41 |
| Article 4 direction areas (permitted development removed) | 84 |
| Tree preservation zones | 41 |
| Listed building outlines | 2,609 |
| Local Plan documents | 0 |
Counts are read from planning.data.gov.uk and refreshed daily. A zero or dash means the council has not yet published that dataset to the national index — not that the designation doesn’t exist on the ground. We show what we found and tell you what we didn’t. We never infer a restriction — or the absence of one — from missing data.
Reading Kensington and Chelsea’s planning landscape
With 41 conservation areas on the official index, design and character carry real weight in Kensington and Chelsea decisions. Inside a conservation area the bar for external alterations rises, and some permitted development rights narrow — which side of a boundary your property sits on can change your project’s planning route entirely.
Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea has 84 Article 4 direction areas in force. An Article 4 direction removes specific permitted development rights, so work that would normally need no application — certain extensions, alterations, even paving — can require full permission. This is the single most common surprise we find for homeowners, and it is address-specific: the free check below reads it for your exact postcode.
Every application in Kensington and Chelsea is decided against national policy (the NPPF) and Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea’s adopted Local Plan. A Planning Policy report quotes the specific policies that apply to your project — verbatim, verified, and linked to the official documents.