No. In the UK, installing CCTV on your own home is classed as permitted development and does not require planning permission. You can mount cameras on the exterior of your property without applying to the council. This applies to both houses and flats, though leaseholders should check their lease for restrictions on external alterations.
There is one exception. If your property is a listed building, you need listed building consent before mounting anything to the exterior. This is about protecting the building's character, not about CCTV specifically. In practice, careful placement and cable routing usually satisfies conservation officers, but you need approval first.
Planning permission is not the same as legal compliance. Even though you do not need permission to install cameras, you do have obligations under UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 if your cameras capture anything beyond your own property - such as a shared driveway, a neighbour's garden, or a public pavement.
The ICO's domestic CCTV guidance says that if your cameras record areas outside your property boundary, you become a data controller. This means you should put up visible signage saying CCTV is in operation, only record what is necessary for security, store footage securely, and respond to subject access requests if someone asks for footage of themselves.
In practice, most home CCTV systems capture at least some pavement or road. This is normal and expected. The key is that your cameras are positioned to cover your property's approach routes and entry points, not pointed directly at a neighbour's windows or a public area that has nothing to do with your security.
At Doberman, we handle all of this during the free site survey. We recommend camera positions that give you the coverage you need while keeping the field of view proportionate. We advise on signage placement and configure privacy masking zones in the UniFi Protect app to black out areas you do not need to record, such as a neighbour's garden that falls within the camera's peripheral view.