Do You Need Planning Permission For a Swimming Pool?

Do You Need Planning Permission For a Swimming Pool?

Once you’ve decided that you want to have a swimming pool installed in your home or garden, you’ll be anxious to get on with having designs drawn up and for the work to begin. However, before you call us at Deep End Pools, we would advise you to check whether it is legal for you to have a swimming pool built in the first place.

In this blog, we’ll take a look at whether you need planning permission for indoor and outdoor swimming pools in the United Kingdom.

How to check

In general, to build on land in the UK, you need planning permission. But in most cases, you won’t need it to have your swimming pool installed, but depending on the type of land or building you own, planning permission may be required. Your first point of enquiry should be the planning office at your county or city council. They will be able to give you full information on what you can and cannot build on your land.

You can find a list of local authorities in the UK here.

Indoor pools

Buildings containing a swimming pool are known as a ‘pool hall’. This is classed as an outbuilding and is considered to be a ‘permitted development’. This means that it does not need a planning application, but is subject to the following limits and conditions: 

• Outbuildings have to be single-storey with maximum eaves height of 2.5 metres and maximum overall height of four metres with a dual pitched roof, or three metres for any other roof.
• Must have a maximum height of 2.5 metres and be within two metres of a boundary of the curtilage of the main property.
• It should have no verandas, balconies or raised platforms (a platform must be no higher than 0.3 metres).
• The outbuilding cannot be situated on land forward of a wall forming the principal elevation.
• In National Parks, the Broads, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and World Heritage Sites, the maximum area to be covered by buildings and pools situated more than 20 metres from the house is limited to 10 square metres. Planning permission is required if it is situated at the side of a property.
• If the outbuilding is within curtilage of a listed building, planning permission is required.
• Only half the area of land around your house should be covered by additions or other buildings.

If you are unsure whether the planned building comes under the outbuilding category, or the above conditions apply to you, it is always a good idea to check beforehand. 

Outdoor pools

In most cases, you will not usually need to get planning permission for an outside swimming pool. This is because the pool is classed as a garden project. However, make sure you check first with your local planning authority if your property, or the area that surrounds it, has one of the classifications below: 

• National Park
• Conservation area
• Listed building
• Greenbelt land
• Designated land

 For more information, contact us