Do I need planning permission in Adur?

Planning permission in Adur sounds like it should be simple — either you need it or you don't. But the reality is that whether your project requires permission depends on factors most homeowners never think to check. WhatCanIBuild exists precisely because the answer is almost never as clear-cut as people assume.

Your postcode is just the start

Adur covers a wide stretch of the West Sussex coast — from Shoreham-by-Sea through Southwick and into parts of Worthing's fringes. But two houses on the same road can have completely different planning situations. Whether you're in BN43, BN15, or anywhere else in the district, your permitted development rights — the rules that let you build certain things without a full application — can be curtailed, expanded, or stripped away entirely depending on what's on your title and what designations affect your land.

Most homeowners don't realise that permitted development rights are a baseline that can be overridden at a local level. And in Adur, there are multiple layers of override in play.

The exceptions that catch people out

Adur's proximity to the South Downs National Park isn't just a scenic footnote. Properties on or near what's known as Article 1(5) land operate under tighter rules than standard residential streets — and the boundary doesn't follow obvious lines. You might assume you're comfortably outside it. You might be wrong.

Then there are Adur's 9 Article 4 directions. These are specific designations that remove permitted development rights from particular streets or areas — meaning work you could legally do anywhere else in the country suddenly requires a full planning application. The catch? There's no way to know whether one applies to your street without checking your specific address.

And with 236 listed buildings in the district, there's a meaningful chance that a property you're buying, renovating, or extending has listed status — or is close enough to a listed building that your project enters a grey area.

What your neighbour's extension doesn't tell you

This is where most homeowners go wrong. They see a project that was completed nearby and assume the same rules apply to them. But approvals are property-specific. Your neighbour might have had different permitted development rights, a different planning history on their plot, or a slightly different relationship to a conservation area boundary. What got waved through for them could trigger a refusal — or an enforcement notice — for you.

The best way to understand what's actually been approved and refused near you — and what that means for your specific project — is WhatCanIBuild. It doesn't just tell you about the constraints on your property. It shows you what similar projects nearby have actually achieved, and what your realistic chances look like.

A householder planning application in Adur costs £548 and typically takes 8 weeks to decide. Getting it wrong — submitting when you didn't need to, or not submitting when you did — costs more than that in time, stress, and potential enforcement action.

Before you assume you know whether your project needs permission, WhatCanIBuild can show you what your property's specific combination of constraints actually means for what you want to build.