Planning rules for replacement windows in Forest Row and each nearby village

The nine places this site covers fall under three district councils in three counties. People are often told that the High Weald or a conservation area means they cannot have uPVC. For a house, that is usually not true. This page sets out who decides in each village and what actually needs permission.

Sources: Wealden District Council's page on extra controls in conservation areas (its only Article 4 direction covers part of Rotherfield); Mid Sussex District Council's guide to its conservation areas (Article 4 directions named only in Cuckfield and Lindfield); Tandridge District Council's conservation area data. Councils can add directions, so check with yours before ordering if you are in a conservation area.

1. Is it a house or a flat?

Houses have what are called permitted development rights. Under them, you can replace windows without planning permission as long as the new ones are of similar appearance to the old. Flats and maisonettes do not have these rights. If you live in a flat, for example above the shops on Hartfield Road in Forest Row or on East Grinstead High Street, a change in material, colour or style of window needs planning permission from the council.

2. Is the building listed?

If it is, any change to the windows needs listed building consent, and that includes swapping old glass for double glazing. This is where timber is genuinely required. East Grinstead town centre has 43 listed buildings, the West Hoathly conservation area 22, Hartfield's 24 and Forest Row's 16, and there are farmhouses and manor houses across every parish. Check yours on the National Heritage List for England.

If consent for new windows is refused, secondary glazing inside the old ones is the usual answer. As an indicative market range, a unit for a typical sash opening costs £450 to £1,200 supplied and fitted, including VAT.

3. Is it in a conservation area?

For an unlisted house in the Forest Row, Hartfield, West Hoathly, East Grinstead or Estcots and East Court conservation areas, the permitted development rule still applies, because none of them has an Article 4 direction covering windows. What changes is how strictly "similar appearance" is read. A cream flush casement replacing a cream timber casement, with the same panes, is similar. A grey aluminium window replacing white timber sashes is probably not, and would need an application.

4. Is it in the High Weald?

Forest Row, Hartfield, Colemans Hatch, Ashurst Wood, West Hoathly and Sharpthorne all sit in the High Weald National Landscape, which was called an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty until 2023. The designation restricts things like cladding, side extensions and new building. It does not remove a householder's right to replace windows.

5. Are there conditions or covenants?

Some newer houses were approved with planning conditions that take away permitted development rights. That is worth checking on the new homes at the former Sharpthorne brickworks and on any recent estate. Separately, private covenants can control external changes; the large wooded plots of Dormans Park have their own mutual covenants. Your deeds will say.

Building Regulations

Replacement windows must meet Building Regulations for heat loss, safety glass and escape from upstairs rooms. A FENSA-registered installer certifies this itself, and you receive a certificate for the house file, which a buyer's solicitor will ask for.