The short answer
In Farnborough, building control is handled by the Hart and Rushmoor Building Control Partnership, a team shared by the two councils and based in Rushmoor Borough Council's offices in Farnborough, on 01252 398715. Addresses in neighbouring council areas use a different body, and a private route exists through a registered building control approver.
The shared Hart and Rushmoor team
Farnborough sits in the borough of Rushmoor, and Rushmoor does not run building control on its own. Hart District Council's own pages say "We share Building Control with Rushmoor Borough Council", and that the team is based in Rushmoor's offices in Farnborough. The service is called the Hart and Rushmoor Building Control Partnership.
A cabinet report to Rushmoor in January 2025 records that Hart and Rushmoor "entered into a shared service to form a Building Control Partnership in July 2015". The same report recommended renewing the arrangement for a further five years to 31 March 2031. That was a recommendation in the paper, so treat the 2031 date as proposed rather than settled.
For you, the point is simple. If your house is in Farnborough, Cove, North Camp, Aldershot or anywhere else in Rushmoor, the council team to ring is the partnership, on 01252 398715. If the house is in Fleet, Hook, Yateley, Odiham or another Hart address, the same team answers, even though the council tax bill comes from Hart. Hart does not run a separate building control service of its own.
Addresses just outside Rushmoor and Hart
Farnborough is close to the Surrey border, and plenty of customers live a few miles away in another council area. Each has its own arrangement, and they are not all the same.
- Surrey Heath, which covers Camberley and Frimley, says Surrey Heath Building Control Consultancy provides its service.
- Elmbridge uses Elmbridge Building Control Services, known as EBCS.
- Wokingham's service is Building Control Solutions, which the borough runs together with West Berkshire.
- Waverley, Guildford, Woking, Runnymede, Bracknell Forest, the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, East Hampshire and Basingstoke and Deane each publish their own council building control pages, and we name no shared service for them.
The rule of thumb is to go by the address of the building, not the address of the roofer. Some roads sit close to a boundary, and your council tax bill shows which council holds your address, so check it before you ring anyone. A Fleet bungalow and a Camberley semi sit about the same distance from us, yet their building control bodies differ. Our page on Building Regulations for roof work explains the approvals themselves, and your own council's planning team can tell you which body covers a boundary case.
The private route: registered approvers
A council is not the only place to get building control. Private companies have long been allowed to do the work, and since 6 April 2024 the law has required them to sit on a register. The current wording is "registered building control approver", and GOV.UK publishes guidance on how the register works.
The choice between the council team and a registered approver is the owner's, and it applies when a job needs approval at all. East Hampshire's pages mention a further option: if a private approver stops being able to act, the council can take the file back on application. That is a detail for the paperwork stage, and it shows why it pays to know who holds your file.
Whichever body signs a job off, its role is to check the work against the Building Regulations. It is separate from planning permission, which the planning team at your council decides, and a roof can need one, both or neither. For a roof, the two questions get asked in a set order: is it a like-for-like repair, does the new covering change the weight, and does the area carry any extra planning rules? Our guide to planning permission for roof work covers the planning half.
Where building control meets a roof job
Most small repairs never reach a building control desk. According to the Planning Portal, no building control application is normally required when less than 25 per cent of the building envelope and less than 50 per cent of the roof is re-covered. A single slipped tile or a patched valley sits far below both.
A whole new roof is another matter, as is any change in weight. A covering 15 per cent or more heavier needs Building Regulations approval and a structural check. Changing from slate to a concrete tile is the classic example.
Where approval applies, our part is to tell you at the survey, explain what the building control body will want to see, and build the work to it. One total price in writing follows the survey, with the approval question answered before it. The choice of body sits with the owner.
Unsure which side of the boundary you are on? Ring the number above before the work is booked, and have your postcode to hand. The service is local, based in the same town as we are, and a short call usually settles the question. Our homepage lists the roofing services we cover.
