Guide
Scaffold licence cost: when you need a pavement permit (UK)
Updated
If the scaffold stands on, or overhangs, the public highway, someone needs a licence from the council before it goes up. On your own land, nobody does. Here is how it works and who pays.
When a licence is needed
Under section 169 of the Highways Act 1980, erecting scaffolding on a highway, which includes the pavement and verge, not just the road, needs a licence from the local council. Scaffold wholly on your own drive, garden or forecourt needs no licence. The application is normally made by the scaffolding firm, not the homeowner: check the quote says the licence is included and who is applying, because the offence sits with whoever put the scaffold up.
What it costs
Fees are set by each council and vary widely. There is no national rate: the published 2026 fees we read range from £93 for 28 days (Dorset) to £260 for four weeks (Suffolk) and £274 for the first month (Solihull), each with a further fee for every renewal or extension if the job overruns. Check your own council's highways pages, gov.uk routes you to the right one from apply for a scaffolding licence. Treat any figure a scaffolder quotes for the licence as a pass-through of the council's published fee.
Conditions, and what happens without one
- Licences carry conditions: lighting the scaffold at night, guarding standards at pedestrian level, keeping a minimum footway width, and displaying the licence details.
- Unlicensed scaffold on the highway is an offence under section 169, with fines and the council able to require immediate removal, mid-project.
- The licence does not replace safety law: the 7-day inspection duty under the Work at Height Regulations applies to every scaffold, licensed or not.
Licence fees sit outside the calculator's range because each council sets its own. Ask the scaffolder to show the council fee as its own line on the quote.