Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps are they taking to reduce loopholes in planning permission laws and to ensure compliance with the intention behind those laws; and how they are addressing information regarding such loopholes which can be found online.

Enforcement action is at the discretion of local planning authorities. The Government has given them a wide range of enforcement powers with strong penalties for non-compliance. National planning policy provides that authorities should act proportionately in responding to suspected breaches of planning control.

It is a fundamental part of the planning system that applicants have a right to challenge a planning decision. However, in recent years we have taken steps to help prevent abuse:

• Through the Localism Act 2011, we limited the opportunities to obtain planning permission after the event – either through an enforcement appeal or a retrospective planning application – but not both. We also introduced planning enforcement orders which allow local authorities to take enforcement action after the time limit for enforcement action has expired where there has been deliberate concealment of the apparent breach.

• In 2013, the time period for applying for judicial review of decisions under the Planning Acts was reduced from 3 months to 6 weeks.

• In 2014, we established the Planning Court with judges who have specialist planning knowledge and target timescales for hearing cases.

• The Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 further streamlined the judicial review process, by introducing a requirement that courts must refuse permission where a claim is highly likely to have made no substantial difference to the outcome.

• In August 2015, we made intentional unauthorised development a material consideration in the determination of planning applications and appeals.

• ‘Leapfrog appeals’ were introduced so that appeals can be made directly to the Supreme Court, bypassing the Court of Appeal.

The enforcement of planning control is a statutory function of local authorities for which they need to budget. However, there are certain circumstances in which local planning authorities can recover the costs of taking enforcement action. For example, where any steps required by an enforcement notice are not taken within the specified compliance period, local authorities may, under section 178 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, take those steps and recover any costs reasonably incurred in doing so from the landowner. Local authorities can also apply for confiscation orders under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 to confiscate the proceeds of crime, including from planning offences.

Whilst the Government cannot prevent the spread of information on perceived planning loopholes online, local authorities can deter future breaches of planning control by making appropriate and effective use of the powers available to them.