For a house in England, the national rule allows a permeable driveway of any size without planning permission. The same applies to a hard surface that drains onto a lawn or border. A traditional hard surface over 5 square metres with nowhere to drain needs permission. Flats, Article 4 areas and some new builds work differently, so check with your council first.
What is the rule for paving a front garden?
The national rule comes down to one question: where does the rainwater go? If it soaks through the surface, or runs off into soil inside your garden, the rule does not call for planning permission.
The Planning Portal says the rule covers new and replacement driveways in the front garden of a house. It works like this:
- Permeable or porous surface: no planning permission needed, at any size.
- Hard surface that drains to a lawn or border: no planning permission needed, at any size.
- Traditional hard surface over 5 square metres with no route to a permeable area: planning permission needed.
- 5 square metres or less: no planning permission needed.
Five square metres is a strip 2.5 metres long and 2 metres wide. You will pass that quickly on most driveways.
The Planning Portal calls its page an introductory guide, not a legal source. It also says local rules can change the answer. Your council has the final word.
What counts as a permeable surface?
A permeable surface lets rainwater pass through it into the ground underneath. The Planning Portal gives three examples: gravel, permeable concrete block paving and porous asphalt.
| Surface | How the national rule treats it |
| Gravel | Permeable, any size |
| Permeable concrete block paving | Permeable, any size |
| Porous asphalt | Permeable, any size |
| Standard tarmac or concrete | Impermeable. Over 5 m², the water needs a route to a lawn, border or other permeable area |
The product name on a quote tells you less than the specification does. If you are weighing up your options, our guide to block paving, resin and tarmac in Norfolk sets out how each one behaves. Either way, ask your installer in writing whether the surface they plan to lay is permeable and where the water goes. Keep that answer. Your council may ask the same question.
When does the rule not apply to you?
The front garden allowance covers houses. If your home falls into one of the groups the Planning Portal excludes, the national rule does not apply, and you need to ask your council directly.
The Planning Portal lists these exclusions:
- Flats and maisonettes.
- Converted houses, and homes created through permitted development rights, for example under the change of use classes in Schedule 2, Part 3, or the new dwellinghouse rights in Part 20.
- Buildings that are not houses.
- Any property with a planning condition, an Article 4 Direction or another restriction on permitted development rights.
Conservation areas and listed buildings bring their own controls on top of all this, and those sit with your district, borough or city council. The table in the next section shows which one covers you.
The rule also stops at the front garden. Fences, walls, gates and dropped kerbs are separate questions, and patios or driveways elsewhere on your property follow different rules.
Live on a newer estate? Read the original planning permission for the development. A condition in it can limit what you are allowed to do.
Which Norfolk council should you contact?
Planning decisions sit with your city, district or borough council. Dropped kerbs go to Norfolk County Council instead, which the next section covers.
| Town | Planning authority | Conservation areas in that council’s area |
| Wymondham | South Norfolk Council | 52 |
| Attleborough | Breckland Council | 50 |
| Dereham | Breckland Council | 50 |
| Great Yarmouth | Great Yarmouth Borough Council | 19 |
| Norwich | Norwich City Council | 17 |
| Broadland area | Broadland District Council | 21 |
These counts cover each council’s whole area, not only the town. Attleborough and Dereham each have their own conservation area on Breckland’s list, first designated in 1975 and 1973. Breckland adopted a new appraisal for Dereham after a public consultation that closed in May 2025.
South Norfolk and Broadland share one website, and it has a map of conservation areas for both. Breckland uses a tool called My Maps. Great Yarmouth and Norwich both let you search by address on their conservation pages. Check the map first. If your home sits inside a boundary, speak to the planning team before you pick a surface.
Is a dropped kerb a separate application?
Yes. In Norfolk, you apply to Norfolk County Council for a dropped kerb, whatever surface you lay behind it. The Planning Portal notes that driving over a pavement without one is illegal. We cover the process in full in our guide to dropped kerbs in Norwich.
Norfolk County Council publishes these details:
- The application fee is £193.92, and you do not get it back if the council refuses.
- The council usually gives a decision within 28 days.
- If approved, the Norse Group sends a quote and does the work. The average cost is £3,050 at 2026 prices.
- Your front garden must be at least 5 metres deep, or 6 metres if you park in front of a garage or door.
- If the driveway next to the crossing is not permeable, you must send details of a drainage system.
On an A, B or C road, you also need planning permission from your local city, district or borough council.
What does this mean for a Norfolk driveway?
Two of the county council’s own figures are worth putting side by side. A single-car crossing is normally 2.75 metres wide at the top, and the front garden has to be at least 5 metres deep before a crossing is allowed at all. A driveway of roughly those proportions comes to about 14 square metres, nearly three times the 5 square metre threshold in the national rule.
The council does not publish that area figure. It is simply what its own two minimums come to when you multiply them. The point is that almost any real driveway is well past 5 square metres, so in practice it is the drainage that decides which side of the rule you land on, not the size.
There is also a direct link between the surface and the crossing application. In Norfolk County Council’s own words: if permeable material is not being used on the surface of the adjacent driveway, you will need to provide details of a suitable drainage system. So the surface you choose does not only answer the planning question, it decides what you have to submit with the dropped kerb application as well.
When we survey your front garden, we look at levels, drainage and access. The planning question belongs to your council, and we will point you there.
Frequently asked questions
Does the rule apply to replacing an old driveway?
Yes. The Planning Portal says it covers new and replacement driveways in a front garden.
Is there a size limit for permeable paving?
Not under the national rule. Local restrictions can still apply.
Who builds dropped kerbs in Norfolk?
Norfolk County Council approves them. Its contractor, the Norse Group, carries out all the work.
Before you start
Check three things with your council: which authority covers your address, whether you are in a conservation area or Article 4 area, and whether your property has any planning conditions.
Then compare block paving, resin bound and tarmac with drainage in mind.
For local details, see our pages for Wymondham, Attleborough, Dereham and Great Yarmouth.