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Street check

The street check

Street check: would Class G cover your heat pump?

England's permitted development rule for air source heat pumps, applied to one Liverpool home at a time. Pick the conservation area from the council's list of 36 and the spot you have in mind; the check shows which parts of the rule pass and which do not.

Liverpool City Council area · checked 3 November 2026 · independent guide, not an installer

The street check below is the quickest way to see how England's permitted development rule treats a heat pump at a particular Liverpool address. It asks about the home, the building's status, the conservation area if there is one, and where the outdoor unit would go. Each answer is tested against a numbered part of Part 14 Class G as it stands after the 2025 amendments, and the result names the paragraph so that you, an installer or the council can look it up.

It is built for this city. The conservation area list is the council's own, all 36 of them, with their designation dates from the national planning dataset. When you pick one, the map lights it up so you can check you have the right area. The rules are national, but in a city where 37.9% of households live in terraces and the council has designated 9% of the land area, the local answers matter more than the general ones.

The street check is a starting point. For the planning side in more depth, conservation areas and planning covers when a Liverpool address needs an application; terraces and flats covers where a unit fits on the city's most common homes; and the Warm Homes: Local Grant in Liverpool explains the council's scheme for lower-income households.

Street check

Would Class G cover a heat pump at your address?

Answer for the home and the spot you have in mind. The check reads the national rule against your answers and shows which parts pass, which fail and which you still need to confirm. Nothing you choose leaves this page.

1. What kind of home is it?
2. Is the building listed?
3. Is it in a conservation area?

Not sure? The council's conservation area map shows the boundaries, and so does the planning.data.gov.uk map.

4. Where would the outdoor unit go?
5. How many air source heat pumps would the property have, counting this one?
6. The outdoor unit's volume, including any housing
7. The MCS 020 a) sound calculation for that spot
8. Rare cases (tick any that apply)
Map of the Liverpool City Council area The city boundary with the council's 36 conservation areas shaded and 1,569 listed-building records shown as dots, most of them in the city centre and in the conservation areas south of it. Albert DockCanning StreetCastle StreetChildwall AbbeyDerwent SquareDuke StreetEdge HillFulwood ParkGateacre VillageGrassendale and Cressington ParkGrove ParkHartley VillageHunts Cross AvenueKensington FieldsKnotty AshLark LaneMossley HillMount PleasantMuirhead AvenueNewenham CrescentNewsham ParkOgden ClosePrinces ParkPrinces RoadRodney StreetSefton ParkShaw StreetSt Michaels HamletStanley DockToxteth Park & AvenuesWalton on the HillWavertree Garden SuburbWavertree VillageWest Derby VillageWilliam Brown StreetWoolton Village

Choose your answers to see the result.

This reads Part 14 Class G as amended by SI 2025/560 (in force 29 May 2025). It is not planning advice and not a decision: Liverpool City Council decides, and a lawful development certificate is how you get its answer in writing before work starts.

How to answer each question

The kind of home

Class G covers two things: a house, and a building made up only of flats. A terraced or semi-detached house can have one outdoor unit; a detached house can have two. A block of flats, including a house converted entirely into flats, can have one for the whole building, and the unit there must be no larger than 0.6 cubic metres. In 2021, 23.2% of Liverpool households lived in a flat of some kind, so the flats answer is not a rare one here. Flats above shops or offices are the awkward case: the building is neither a house nor made up only of flats, so ask the council before relying on Class G.

Listed or not

If the building is on the National Heritage List for England, Class G does not apply to it or to land within its grounds. Liverpool has 1,569 listed-building records, 30 of them at Grade I. If you are not sure, the listed buildings page explains how to look it up.

The conservation area

Pick the area from the list, or choose "Not sure". The council's own map and the national planning map both show the boundaries; a street can be inside on one side and outside on the other. The full list of the 36 areas gives each one's reference and designation date.

The position of the unit

Think about the exact spot, not the general idea. "The back" is usually the yard or the side return of a terrace, which Class G treats kindly. "Facing a road" means a wall or roof that fronts a highway, which can include the side wall of an end-terrace on a corner. A flat roof works only if the unit sits at least 1 metre in from every outer edge, and a pitched roof never works under Class G.

Size and sound

The unit's volume, including any housing or acoustic enclosure, must stay within 1.5 cubic metres on a house. Installers can give you the dimensions from the data sheet. The sound test is MCS 020 a): the installer calculates the noise level at the nearest neighbouring door or window, and the spot passes or fails. If you have not had a survey yet, choose "Not done yet" and the check will list it as something to confirm.

Reading the result

Every rule comes back as met, not met or to confirm, with the paragraph of Class G that sets it. "Not met" does not mean a heat pump is impossible. It means that particular plan needs a planning application, or a change: another position, a smaller unit, a quieter model. "To confirm" items are the ones to put to an installer or the council. And the conditions that always apply are listed at the end, because they cannot be ticked off in advance: the unit has to be sited, as far as practicable, to limit its effect on the building's appearance and on the area, and removed when it is no longer needed.

When everything passes, the plan reads as permitted development. Many people go ahead on that basis, with the installer's MCS paperwork as their record. If you would rather have the council's answer in writing first, apply for a lawful development certificate.

Questions people ask

Does the street check tell me I do not need planning permission?

No. It shows how the national rule reads against your answers. Liverpool City Council decides, and if you want certainty before work starts, a lawful development certificate is the way to get the council's view in writing.

Why does the street check ask about the road?

Because Class G treats road-facing positions differently. Outside a conservation area a unit on a road-facing wall must stay at ground-floor level. Inside one, it may not go on a road-facing wall or roof at all, or sit nearer the road than the house.

My terrace is on a corner. Which wall faces the road?

On a corner plot two walls can front a highway. Treat both as road-facing when you answer, and if the only workable spot is on one of them, ask the council how it reads the rule for your home.

Who runs the MCS 020 a) sound calculation?

The installer, for the exact position proposed, using the distance to the nearest door or window of a neighbouring home. Ask for the calculation in writing with the quote.

Sources

  1. legislation.gov.uk, GPDO 2015 Schedule 2 Part 14 (Class G)
  2. legislation.gov.uk, SI 2025/560
  3. Liverpool City Council, conservation areas
  4. planning.data.gov.uk, conservation areas
  5. MCS 020 a) planning standard

Read on 3 November 2026. Councils and departments update their pages; where this guide and the source differ, the source is right.

A question about a heat pump for a Liverpool home?

Tell us about the home and what you are trying to work out: planning, a grant, room for the outdoor unit or the electricity supply. SEO-DONS LTD, the publisher of this guide, replies by email. We are not installers and we do not pass your details to any firm.

What happens next

  1. Your message reaches SEO-DONS LTD, which publishes this city guide.
  2. We reply by email, pointing to the rule, dataset or council page that answers it.
  3. Your details are not passed to installers, and asking commits you to nothing.
Add detail about the home (optional)

Read by SEO-DONS LTD, publisher of Heat Pumps Liverpool, and answered by email. This site is an independent guide, not an installer or a council service, and does not refer you to any firm. See our privacy notice.

Street check