Air Conditioning Woking: Homes, Town-Centre Flats and Business Parks

Do I need planning permission for air conditioning in Woking?

Woking is more planning-sensitive than its modern skyline suggests. The town centre itself is a conservation area, and so are the older villages of Old Woking, Pyrford and Horsell, along with Mount Hermon, The Hockering and the Basingstoke Canal corridor. In those streets we keep condensers off the front elevation and use rear or side siting. On an ordinary suburban house most installs are permitted development if the outdoor unit meets the MCS 020 noise limit (42 dB(A) at the neighbour’s window). Flats are a separate case: the limits on external units are tighter, and the lease or managing agent usually decides where plant may go.

Read our full UK & Surrey planning-permission guide →

Woking facts that shape an air conditioning install

Each point below is taken from a named public source, linked so you can check it.

• 27 conservation areas, including the town centre

  The national planning-data register lists 27 conservation areas in Woking Borough, among them Woking Town Centre, Old Woking, Horsell, Pyrford, Mount Hermon, The Hockering and three stretches of the Basingstoke Canal. We check your address against that list before proposing where a condenser goes.

  Source: Planning Data (MHCLG), Woking conservation areas

• A Grade I listed building off Oriental Road

  The Shah Jahan Mosque, built in 1889 and described as the first purpose-built mosque in Britain, is listed Grade I. Fixing plant to a listed building, or within its curtilage, needs listed building consent, so homes and premises close to it are planned with that in mind.

  Source: Historic England, list entry 1264438

• 429 new apartments in the Victoria Square towers

  The Victoria Square scheme added 429 apartments in two residential towers next to a four-star Hilton. In high-rise flats like these the building owner usually controls the façade and balconies, so we start with the managing agent’s rules on external units before choosing a system.

  Source: Retail Destination, Victoria Square tops out

• Building Regulations Part O on overheating

  Since 15 June 2022, new homes in England must limit summer solar gain and provide a way to remove heat, under Approved Document O. Many of Woking’s newest flats were designed to it, which is why we check the building’s overheating strategy (shading, ventilation, any cooling allowance) before adding air conditioning.

  Source: GOV.UK, Approved Document O: Overheating

• 39.3°C recorded at Wisley in July 2022

  In the July 2022 heatwave the Met Office station at RHS Wisley, a few miles east of Woking town centre, reached 39.3°C. That beat the station’s previous record by 1.5°C over 108 years of readings.

  Source: Met Office heatwave summary, reproduced by the US National Weather Service

• Climate emergency declared 25 July 2019

  Woking Borough Council declared a climate and ecological emergency on 25 July 2019, aims for a carbon-neutral council estate by 2030 and net zero across the borough by 2050, and revised its Climate Change Strategy in August 2024. Modern air-to-air heat pumps that cool in summer and heat in winter fit that direction better than portable units or electric heaters.

  Source: Woking Borough Council, Climate Change Strategy