A planning condition or an informative on the decision
A condition binds you and can be enforced. An informative is a note. Knowing which is which decides your programme, your fees and your appeal rights.
A condition is part of the permission and can be enforced. An informative is a note on the same piece of paper that carries no legal force at all. The difference decides whether you have to do something before you build, whether the council can stop you if you do not, and whether you have any right of appeal.
Read both halves of every decision notice. Applicants who skim the conditions and ignore the informatives miss the separate consents. Applicants who treat an informative as binding spend money they did not need to spend.
What a condition does that an informative cannot
Conditions are imposed under sections 70 and 72 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. They form part of the grant, so the permission exists only in the terms the conditions set.
Three consequences follow. The council can serve a breach of condition notice under section 187A, or include the breach in an enforcement notice. Development carried out in breach of a condition going to the heart of the permission may not count as a lawful start, so the permission can lapse while you are building. And a condition can be appealed or varied, which gives you a route to change it.
An informative does none of that. It is advice, usually flagging another regime: Building Regulations approval, a licence from the highway authority for a skip, a protected species licence from Natural England, party wall notices, or the need for a separate agreement with the water undertaker. Ignore it and nothing happens under planning law. The other regime still bites, which is the whole point of the note.
The six tests
Planning Practice Guidance on the use of planning conditions sets out six tests. A condition should be necessary, relevant to planning, relevant to the development permitted, enforceable, precise, and reasonable in all other respects.
| Test | What it rules out |
|---|---|
| Necessary | Conditions restating duties that already exist in law |
| Relevant to planning | Conditions dealing with private rights, covenants or commercial competition |
| Relevant to the development | Conditions controlling land outside the applicant's control or unrelated parts of the site |
| Enforceable | Conditions the council could not practically police |
| Precise | Conditions requiring work to be "appropriate" or "to a high standard" |
| Reasonable in all other respects | Conditions so onerous that the permission could not be implemented |
Precision is the one that generates most argument at discharge stage. A condition requiring materials "to be agreed in writing" is fine. A condition requiring a scheme of landscaping "of an appropriate quality" gives the officer an unlimited veto and gives you nothing to satisfy.
Conditions that ought to have been informatives
Four types turn up regularly and fail the necessity test.
- Conditions requiring compliance with the Building Regulations. That duty exists anyway and the planning authority does not enforce it.
- Conditions requiring compliance with the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 or with a protected species licence. Again, a statutory duty already.
- Conditions requiring a separate agreement under section 278 of the Highways Act 1980 to be entered into. The highway authority controls that, and a Grampian condition preventing occupation until the works are complete is the enforceable version.
- Conditions imposing party wall obligations, which are private law and nothing to do with planning.
Ask for these to be converted to informatives while the decision is being drafted. A condition that fails the tests is still binding until it is varied or quashed, so the fact that it should not have been imposed is cold comfort once the notice is issued.
The reverse error also happens. Tree protection is a common example, where an informative about the presence of a protected tree does nothing, and what is needed is a condition requiring protective fencing to BS 5837:2012 to be in place before any equipment arrives. That sits alongside the separate question of consent for works to the tree itself, and the difference between a tree survey and a TPO application is worth being clear about before you start.
Pre-commencement conditions and your right to object
Section 100ZA of the 1990 Act prevents a local planning authority imposing a pre-commencement condition without the applicant's written agreement. The authority has to give notice of the proposed condition and its reason, and you have a period to respond.
Do not let that period pass in silence. Silence is treated as agreement. Where a condition is drafted as pre-commencement and does not need to be, ask for it to be tied to a later trigger instead, such as before the superstructure rises above damp proof course, or before first occupation. The programme saving is often measured in months.
Illustrative example. A permission for four houses arrives with nine conditions, of which six are pre-commencement, including materials, landscaping, boundary treatments and a construction management plan. Materials and boundary treatments do not need to be settled before groundworks. Renegotiated to a slab level trigger, the developer starts eight weeks earlier and the discharge fees fall into a single application. The detail here is illustrative.
What happens when each is breached
Breach of a condition can be met with a breach of condition notice, which carries no right of appeal to the Secretary of State. The only way to test it is to refuse to comply and defend the prosecution in the magistrates court, which is not a position anyone wants to be in.
The alternative is an enforcement notice, which does carry appeal rights and which puts the planning merits back in play. Councils choose between them according to how clear cut the breach is.
Breach of an informative produces no planning consequence. What it produces is a Building Control refusal, an unlicensed works offence, or a claim from a neighbour under the Party Wall etc. Act 1996.
Changing a condition after it is issued
Three routes exist, and they are not interchangeable.
- A non-material amendment under section 96A, for small changes where the development remains substantially the same. Quick, low in fee terms, and at the council's discretion.
- An application under section 73 to vary or remove a condition. It creates a new permission running alongside the original, so the original conditions have to be carried across and renumbered. It cannot be used to alter the description of development.
- An appeal under section 78 against the condition. The general time limit is six months from the decision, reduced to twelve weeks for a householder appeal, which is one of several differences between a householder application and a full application.
The Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 added a further power to vary permissions where the effect would not be substantially different. Provisions in that Act have been brought into force in stages, so check whether the power is live before relying on it.
Reading the decision notice properly
Work through it in this order. First the time limit condition, which sets the three years within which development must begin. Then the approved plans condition, which lists the drawing numbers, because building to a revised drawing that is not on the list is a breach. Then the pre-commencement conditions, marked by their trigger wording rather than by any label. Then everything else. Then the informatives.
Write the triggers into the programme before the contractor is appointed, and log which conditions need a discharge application and which are compliance only. A Planning Statement submitted with the application can head off several of the vaguer conditions by dealing with materials, landscaping and construction management up front, and the full set of supporting document types shows what else a council may ask for.
This is general guidance, not legal advice. Check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it.
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Frequently asked questions
Can a council enforce an informative?
No. An informative carries no legal force under planning law and cannot be the subject of a breach of condition notice or an enforcement notice. What it usually does is flag a separate regime such as Building Regulations, a species licence or a highway agreement, and that regime can be enforced by whoever administers it.
What are the six tests for a planning condition?
Planning Practice Guidance requires a condition to be necessary, relevant to planning, relevant to the development permitted, enforceable, precise, and reasonable in all other respects. A condition that fails a test is still binding until varied or quashed, so raise objections while the decision is being drafted rather than afterwards.
Can the council impose a pre-commencement condition without asking me?
Not in England. Section 100ZA of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 requires the applicant's written agreement, and the authority must give notice of the proposed condition and its reason. If you do not respond within the period given, agreement is taken to have been given, so treat that notice as urgent.
How do I get a condition changed after permission is granted?
Use a section 96A non-material amendment for a small change, a section 73 application to vary or remove the condition, or a section 78 appeal against it. A section 73 grant creates a new permission alongside the original and cannot alter the description of development, so the existing conditions have to be carried across.
What is the deadline for appealing a condition?
The general limit is six months from the date of the decision notice, reduced to twelve weeks for a householder appeal. Check the date on the notice rather than the date you received it. An appeal against a condition puts the planning merits of that condition before an inspector, and the rest of the permission stands.
Sources and further reading
This article is general guidance about the planning system in England and, where stated, the rest of the UK. It is not legal or professional advice. Check your local planning authority’s validation requirements and take professional advice for your specific site.