Local Planning Authority (LPA) meaning

Planning conditions and planning obligations often limit both what development may take place and the way it is carried out on the land or buildings to which they apply. See Practice Notes: Planning conditions—key points and Planning obligations—key points. Planning obligations Agreements made under section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (commonly called section 106 agreements, or planning obligations) control the use of land and bind successors in title. They are recorded as local land charges. The agreement should specify the land it binds by reference to an attached plan, which will usually mirror the planning application site boundary for the related development. A section 106 agreement is typically concluded before the decision notice granting planning permission is issued. How are planning obligations revealed? Review the outcome of the local land charges search (LLC1). Planning obligations are registrable as local land charges. From 12 April 2015, HM Land Registry has responsibility for the local land charges register. Transitional provisions permit HM Land Registry...

Has the correct application form been used? If an application is submitted on the wrong form, or without the requisite details, it will be invalid and the local planning authority (LPA) may decline to validate it. The determination period only starts from the date the application is validated. The application must be submitted by one of the following routes: an online submission via the Planning Portal (advised) the national standard application form (1APP), completed and filed online or as a PDF a paper/PDF form downloaded from the Planning Portal ‘Paper Form Chooser’ (or, where available, from the relevant LPA’s website) and sent by post or email...

Conservation areas are neighbourhoods or districts identified and designated under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (in England) and the Historic Environment (Wales) Act 2023 (HE(W)A 2023) as places of particular architectural or historic interest, whose character or appearance it is desirable to protect or enhance. See Practice Notes: Conservation areas in England and Conservation areas in Wales for further guidance. What are the implications of the property being in a conservation area? If the property lies within a conservation area: planning controls are tighter—permitted development rights are generally more limited in conservation areas; some conservation areas may additionally be subject to specific Article 4 directions, which restrict permitted development even further (see: Permitted development—overview and Practice Note: Article 4 directions) in England, conservation area consent is not needed for the demolition of any buildings. Proposals to demolish such buildings are determined by the local planning authority (LPA) via a formal application for planning permission accordingly. See Practice Note: Planning...

Brent London Borough Council v Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government and another [2019] EWHC 1399 (Admin) What are the practical implications of this case? The decision confirms there is no duty on an inspector, in all appeals against enforcement notices, to go searching to determine whether some additional or alternative breach of planning control, different from that alleged in the notice, has taken place. Nor is there any rule of statutory interpretation requiring an inspector, when deciding such an appeal, to assess whether the use existing ten years before service of the notice had, within the ten-year period ending on the date of service, altered through intensification to such an extent as to amount to a material change of use. That said, where an enforcement notice asserts, or the local planning authority (LPA) that issued it contends, that a use has intensified so markedly as to constitute a material change of use, and that this shift happened within the ten years preceding the notice, the...

Halton Borough Council v The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government [2025] EWCA Civ 1566 What are the practical implications of this case? This ruling affirms that, in a called-in inquiry, a local planning authority is not acting unreasonably merely because its expert revises their position under cross-examination and the authority consequently withdraws backing for a scheme. Where an expert properly acknowledges in evidence that, applying the relevant guidance, they would now advise against permission, that change can legitimately justify the authority’s shift in stance and the application’s withdrawal. The court makes clear there is no ‘normal procedural requirement’ for an authority to stress-test or rehearse its expert beforehand to ensure their evidence will withstand cross-examination. Authorities may rely on apparently competent expert advice that meets the usual evidential threshold; they are not expected to second‑guess their own experts unless shortcomings are so obvious that the evidence is plainly wrong. For developers and objectors, the judgment underscores that costs awards in called-in cases remain tightly...

In this issue: Obtaining, amending and implementing planning permission Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 Nationally significant infrastructure projects Planning policy Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Latest Q&A Related Documents Obtaining, amending and implementing planning permission Court considers the question of discharge of pre-commencement conditions (Lisle-Mainwaring v RBKC) In Lisle-Mainwaring v Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea [2024] EWHC 440 (Admin), the court dismissed the contention that a local planning authority (LPA) may decline to determine an application to discharge a condition if the decision is taken after the relevant planning permission has expired. It held that the broader rule—that an LPA’s ongoing duty to determine applications for planning permission and for reserved matters—equally applies to approvals required by planning conditions. This remains the position where an application is submitted before the implementation deadline runs out but is determined later. As this analysis had not been put to the LPA, the court...

What is a planning performance agreement? (PPA) Planning performance agreements are voluntary memoranda of understanding or agreements between a planning applicant, the local planning authority (LPA) and, in some instances, other interested parties such as key statutory consultees. A PPA records agreed commitments on timescales, tasks and the resources to be applied to a particular planning submission. Functioning as a project management framework, it sets out the pathway for reaching a determination on the application. PPAs are commonly put in place before an application is lodged and may span every stage of the process, including pre-application. Although the emphasis is usually on the pre-application and application phases, a PPA can also extend into the post-application period, for example to govern how reserved matters or approvals of details will be dealt with. They might be documented as a simple memorandum of understanding or an exchange of letters, or entered into under section 111 of the Local Government Act 1972 (LGA 1972) (see Q&A: What is a section 111 agreement?)....

Practice Note: Planning—enforcement When it appears to a local planning authority (LPA) that planning control has been breached, it may, at its discretion, take enforcement action under Part VII of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (TCPA 1990). For these purposes, section 171A of the TCPA 1990 defines a breach of planning control as: undertaking development without the necessary planning permission, or not complying with any condition or limitation attached to a planning permission This Practice Note explains in detail how a breach of planning control is established, when development acquires immunity from enforcement, and the factors an LPA should weigh when deciding whether to proceed with formal measures. Its focus is on the range of steps available to an LPA in response to a breach of planning control. The Practice Note does not address enforcement concerning listed buildings. For that, see Practice Note: Listed buildings enforcement and criminal liability regime in England. For context on its relevance to conservation...

Within this Practice Note, references to the ‘Secretary of State’ are to be read as including the Welsh Ministers, and any distinctions in policy or legislation are highlighted. What is a 'called-in application'? Ordinarily, planning applications and applications for listed building consent are decided locally by the relevant local planning authority (LPA). The Secretary of State, however, retains a reserve ability to require the LPA to submit an application for a decision by the Secretary of State rather than leaving the matter to the LPA; this is the ‘call-in’ power. Only a small proportion of planning applications are called in. There is no statutory obligation on the Secretary of State to exercise the call-in power. Legal basis for call-in The call-in power has its origin in: section 77 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (TCPA 1990), covering applications for planning permission or permission in principle...

Section 106 agreements (section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (TCPA 1990)) These provisions enable any person with an interest in land to, ‘by agreement or otherwise’, enter into obligations under TCPA 1990, s 106(1)(a) to (d), which may: limit or control the development or use of the land require that specified operations or works are carried out stipulate that the land is used in a particular way require payment of a sum or sums to the authority As s 106 allows obligations to be given ‘by agreement or otherwise’, they may equally be created by a unilateral undertaking, rather than solely through an agreement. This note considers both mechanisms and their effect in practice. For either an agreement or a unilateral undertaking to bind all interests in the land, everyone holding an interest must be joined as a party to the agreement, or must join in the unilateral undertaking, as appropriate. In either event, the local...

Before reaching a decision on a planning application, a local planning authority (LPA) must run a consultation period to gather opinions on the proposed development. This encompasses public consultation. It is open to all members of the public, who may submit representations. To make that process work, the LPA is required to publicise the planning applications it receives. Statutory provisions Section 65 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (TCPA 1990) enables a development order to require that notice is given of any application for planning permission and to make provision for publicising such applications, and it bars an LPA from considering an application unless those requirements are met by virtue of that section. The Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (England) Order 2015, (TCP(DMP)(E)O 2015), SI 2015/595 is the current development order in England, which sets out the minimum statutory requirements governing the publicity of planning applications. The principal requirements are found in (TCP(DMP)(E)O 2015), SI 2015/595, art 15...

LPA’s obligations when imposing financial contributions Developers are frequently obliged to make monetary payments to the local planning authority (LPA) to fund defined projects, helping to offset the harmful effects of a scheme and thereby enable the grant of planning permission. This Q&A addresses circumstances where the section 106 agreement contains no specific express clawback mechanism. When a planning obligation (a section 106 obligation) is proposed to secure a financial contribution at the determination stage of a planning application, that contribution must satisfy the stringent legal tests in regulation 122 of the Community Infrastructure Levy Regulations 2010, SI 2010/948 (SI 2010/948, reg 122) (as amended). Only by meeting those tests can any such payment lawfully and ultimately underpin the grant of planning permission...