Home Page-Permitted Development England

Not only was the legislation rushed at the last moment, it is very poorly phrased and worded that will set the path for the English Lawyers and Legal System to make huge fees over the coming months possibly years until the Law courts have set various precedents for Case Law.

The appeals to the Planning Inspectorate on declined Certificate of Lawful Development applications is now nearly at 350 most of which have been scheduled, categorised and commented on within this web site FOR YOUR OWN RESEARCH.

WHO CAN BENEFIT FROM THIS P.D. WEB SITE?

Primarily for any homeowner wishing to extend a dwelling utilising the sites permitted development rights or allowances. This may also include prospective homeowners for a property or other developers.

For homeowners falling foul of the Planning system having built something which they thought was permitted development to now be informed by the Council that it is not a PD structure and requires retrospective Planning Consent or its removal.

Our aim is to provide you with information and opinions relevant to your particular type of residential development to help you battle through the poorly phrased wording of the latest GPDO for Permitted Development.

USE OUR QUICK-FIX APPROACH - The information on this web site is extensive and is continually being updated. You may find it difficult to locate the information you require or simply do not have the time.

If so, you may 'ask us a PD question' direct which will save you a lot of research time and we have set up a option for you to do this for a small fee (click here).

Please explore the contents of this web site and download any documents that you may consider useful. There are no restricted areas. Everything on this web site is free to use. It is only our 'ask us a question service' for a quicker resolution to your PD query that demands a small fee.

We have tried to be a central resource for most aspects of permitted development building works to existing residential dwellings so that you can exploit the planning permission that you may already have.

Many Planning Authorities are 'non-proactive' or actively obstructive in helping you achieve an extension to your home through the permitted development route and refuse or fail to advise you on the tactics required. Many consider this release of planning control abhorrent. However, they too are struggling with this latest P.D. legislation so it is not all a one way street.

Why were the Permitted Development Rights revised?

Central Government for a long time has tried to unlock the Local Planning System which is predominantly made up of 'Householder' Planning applications for domestic extensions, conversions or ancillary garden buildings. Many of these planning applications find there way to the Planning Inspectorate for the Appeal when an Application has been refused by the Local Council. This causes delays, costs. Certain academics at their 'White Hall Towers' have decided that many of these 'low level' planning applications cause unnecessary delays to the Planning System which subsequently holds up a lot of the more 'grander' high profile planning schemes. So something had to be done.

So how does this affect me?

Planning Permission is perhaps one of the most subjective and wide ranging set of issues there is for a Local Authority to consider. This leads to a variety of opinions, inconsistent assessment of relevant Planning Policy and third party interventions all seeking to have their say on what you (the home owner) want to build.

Many of you may have already been 'through the mill' experiencing these issues only to be denied formal Planning Consent - perhaps even at appeal.

Therefore, assessing what you are legally able to build on your property without formal Planning Approval is perhaps an option you are now having to consider.

However, this process is not without its hurdles and obstacles and the new PD legislation has certainly 'upset the apple cart' for a certain number of people which are mainly the Planners and disgruntled neighbours. Summary of changes to the Permitted Development

QUOTE: "Bureaucracy defends the status quo long past the time when the quo has lost its status".

The previous Permitted Development legislation had remained pretty much in tact for the last 20 years with only minor wording revisions - The main context and assessment criteria remaining pretty much the same.

This new phrasing of the Permitted development rights that began on October 1st 2008 really is a fresh approach in most instances with a whole new assessment criteria of what you can build without Planning Permission that is generally better for the home owner wishing to develop or extend than the previous set of criteria and limitations that had a lot of Case Law as back up for clarification of certain dubious elements of the wording.

This new set of wording for the Permitted Development criteria wipes away an awful lot of previous Case Law precedents that will now be re-challenged in the Courts all over again over the next few months if not years.

Having dealt with such Planning matters for over 25 years now I can guarantee that the current wording will be revised very shortly to cater for the 'White Hall cock ups' when the Courts and Appeal systems have once again been overloaded or some 'obtuse' MP in the Shires or Home Counties has his aspect interfered with or garden overshadowed by a neighbour erecting an extension or garden building in a totally unneighbourly way without the need for obtaining Planning Permission first.

OBSERVATION: Looking at what you can build without formal Planning Permission is not just for the 'disillusioned home owner' who has just been refused Planning Permission now seeking to locate a 'second best' position for their building requirements.

It is more usual that those people wanting to maximise their development potential for a site should perhaps first consider what they can erect without formal Planning Permission and to then develop a 'two prong' design solution that seeks to obtain planning consent for one scheme but then implements the PD scheme after successfully obtaining Planning Permission for the other scheme. If you do this in the opposite manner the Planners will likely 'means test' you for what you have already achieved on the site and then consider the 'accumulative effect' of the total scheme with what you are applying for at Planning and a refusal will likely be the result.

We have now added a 'visitor comments' section at the bottom of every page. Therefore after reading an article why not leave your own comments. Perhaps you disagree or have extra information that may be of value to others. Help make this web site interactive. If you do not want to leave your email or web address simply leave it blank - its not compulsory but please do leave a comment.

Even after exploring what you can legally build without Planning Permission under PD, you may simply find that your preferred scheme or design does require formal Planning Consent in the end.

So, why not give your scheme the best possible chance of obtaining an approval right from the start. Understand what the Planning issues are, how the Planners think and have the strategies to deal with them.

Download your free trial version of an excellent Planning Guide Ebook Maximum Build specialising in residential development that will provide you with everything you need to know. Road test it yourself for a short period and if you like what you read simply purchase the password for unlimited access to this very clever and useful document.

You will even have access to ask the author (a Planning Consultant) some questions about your site specific issues if needed. It is an excellent deal.