Planning Permission
- Peter Levers
- Feb 4, 2017
- 3 min read
Planning Permission is required in the United Kingdom in order to be allowed to either build on land or to change the use of land or buildings. The Town and Country Planning Act 1947 established that planning permission was required for land development and that ownership alone no longer gave the right to the owner to develop the land. Since the introduction of this act any new "development" required planning permission. A "development" is defined by law as being any building, engineering and mining operation or changing the use of any land or building. Planning permission is used as a way of ensuring that all new developments adhere to current building regulations and fit appropriately within the context of their site and don't cause any unnecessary damage to the local environment.
Unknown. Planning Image. [image online] Available at: http://www.nidusarchitects.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/planning-image-e1431498828891.jpg [Accessed 04 February 2017]
Certain types of construction, such as routine maintenance of an existing building or minor and insignificant developments, are either excluded from the definition of being a development or are granted an automatic planning permission by law. These are referred to as a permitted development.
When considering if a proposal requires planning permission or not, a two stage test is done:
1. Is the proposal a development at all? and;
2. Is it a permitted development?
Only if a development is not a permitted development would an application for planning permission be required. This application would need to be made to the local planning authority (LPA) and this is usually done online.
There are a number of different types of planning permission that can be applied for. These are:
1. Full Planning Permission - this would grant permission for all aspects of a propsed development but may be subject to various conditions.
2. Outline Planning Permission - this is when an applicant is seeking an agreement in principle to a proposed development without being committed to a particular design or layout. This cannot be granted for the change in use of land or a building.
3. Hybrid - a hybrid application is one that seeks outline planning permission for one part and full planning permission for another part of the same site.
Once permission has been granted then the following applications can be made.
4. Renewal of Planning Permission - this would be needed if earlier planning permission that was subject to time-limiting conditions has expired. The entire planning application would need to be reviewed again however, unless there are any significant changes to the original application then permission is usually granted again.
5. Removal or Alteration of a Planning Condition - conditions may be placed on an approved planning permission when compliance with that condition is essential to make an unacceptable development acceptable. An applicant can make an application to vary a condition, for example, by complying with it in an alternative way. Conditions that impose a time limit on the development cannot be altered and would therefore need a full new application to be submitted instead.
If a development requires planning permission and an individual decides to do the work first without being granted that permission, then enforcement notices can be served ordered the individual to undo all the changes that they have made.
Available at: http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/06/26/18/29FE7F8400000578-3140621-image-a-6_1435339451746.jpg [Accessed 04 February 2017]
In 2015, a farmer in Surrey was ordered to knock down a £1 million mock Tudor castle that he had secretly built behind hay bales as he didn't have any planning permission.
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