Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to support local authorities to (a) impose penalties on developers who fail to complete adoptable highway works within agreed timescales and (b) recover administration and remedial costs through statutory enforcement notices.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

Local planning authorities already have a wide range of enforcement powers, with strong penalties for non-compliance.

Where a local planning authority thinks that a condition imposed on a planning permission has not been met, they can serve a breach of condition notice which requires the recipient to remedy the breach within a specified time. There is no appeal against such a notice and failure to comply with it is an offence punishable by an unlimited fine.

An enforcement notice can be served against any breach of planning control – where there is no planning permission for development or the terms of a permission (including a condition) have been breached.

Enforcement is a statutory function for which local planning authorities need to budget. As such, the costs of enforcement activity are not generally recoverable. In some circumstances, authorities can take direct action to remedy a breach of planning control and seek to recover any costs reasonably incurred in doing so from the landowner.