Do I need permission to replace windows in a Brent conservation area?

Often, yes. Brent's residential conservation areas have Article 4 directions that can bring replacement windows and doors under planning control, so check the direction for your area before ordering. Outside conservation areas, like-for-like replacement windows don't normally need planning permission but must meet Building Regulations.

Do you renovate flats as well as houses in Brent?

Yes. We refurbish flats in converted Victorian houses as well as whole houses. Check your lease before starting, as most require the freeholder's consent for structural work.

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Renovations · Brent

Home renovations in Brent

We renovate houses across Brent, from tired 1930s semis in Wembley and Kingsbury that need rewiring, new kitchens and opened-up layouts to Victorian houses in Queen's Park and Willesden where original features matter.

Area: Brent
Planning authority: London Borough of Brent

Room in an Edwardian house mid-renovation, with freshly plastered walls, a protected cast-iron fireplace, a sash window being restored and a stepladder — AI-generated illustration; not a completed Mirion project.

What to know in Brent

What a Brent renovation usually involves

Brent's housing splits roughly into interwar semis in the north and Victorian and Edwardian houses in the south. On an interwar semi, a renovation often means removing the wall between the front and back reception rooms, rewiring, replacing the kitchen and bathroom, and improving insulation, often alongside a loft conversion or rear extension. On older houses in Queen's Park, Kensal Rise and Willesden, it is more often about repairing sash windows, plaster, cornicing and fireplaces, curing damp, and modernising services without losing character.

Approvals to check

Most internal work does not need planning permission, but structural changes, such as removing a load-bearing wall, need Building Regulations approval, and notifiable electrical work and all gas work need competent, registered installers. In Brent's conservation areas, the council says every residential area has Article 4 directions, which can bring replacement windows, doors, roofs and front boundaries under planning control. Listed buildings need listed building consent for internal work as well.

If a house is being divided into flats, or flats are being combined, that is a change that needs planning permission in its own right, so we raise it at the start rather than halfway through. Where a renovation includes an extension, Brent's 2025 SPD asks for its external doors and windows to be similar to those of the house.

How we approach renovations

Our process, from survey and design to building and handover, is explained on the main service page.

Go to our main renovations page

Brent renovations: common questions

: Often, yes. Brent's residential conservation areas have Article 4 directions that can bring replacement windows and doors under planning control, so check the direction for your area before ordering. Outside conservation areas, like-for-like replacement windows don't normally need planning permission but must meet Building Regulations.
: Yes. We refurbish flats in converted Victorian houses as well as whole houses. Check your lease before starting, as most require the freeholder's consent for structural work.