Appealing a refusal of prior approval for demolition

A council refusing prior approval for demolition has far less room than most applicants assume. Under Part 11 of Schedule 2 to the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015, demolition of many buildings is already permitted development, and the only matters the authority may approve or refuse are the method of demolition and the proposed restoration of the site. If your demolition prior approval has been refused on grounds about losing the building, or about what you intend to build next, an appeal under section 78 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 has a reasonable prospect, because those reasons sit outside the remit.

What the prior approval actually controls

Demolition is development. Section 55(1A) of the 1990 Act treats building operations as including the demolition of buildings, which is why the question arises at all. Section 55(2)(g) then allows the Secretary of State to describe buildings whose demolition is not development, and the Town and Country Planning (Demolition - Description of Buildings) Direction 2014 does exactly that for certain classes.

For everything left inside the net, Part 11 grants permission subject to a condition: before the works start, the developer must apply to the local planning authority for its prior approval of the method of demolition and of any proposed restoration of the site. Two matters. Not three, and not the planning merits of the loss.

So the officer may legitimately ask about dust suppression, hoarding, hours of working, the sequence of taking the structure down, protection of the party wall, highway cleanliness, and how the cleared ground will be left: levelled, seeded, hoarded, secured. A refusal that engages with those things is a refusal you have to answer with engineering evidence rather than argument.

Matters outside the authority's remit

The reasons that most often appear, and most often fall away at appeal, run along these lines.

• The building makes a positive contribution to the street scene and should be retained.
• No replacement scheme has been approved, so the site will sit empty.
• The loss of the building would harm the character of the area.
• The proposal conflicts with a local plan policy on retaining existing buildings or on embodied carbon.

Each may be a perfectly sound planning view. None of them is the method of demolition or the restoration of the site. An inspector dealing with a Part 11 appeal is deciding whether the two reserved matters are acceptable, and a reason outside that scope carries little weight. Read the notice carefully before deciding how to respond, in the way set out in our guide to reading a refusal notice and turning it into a plan.

There is a related trap. Where a council does want to prevent demolition, its tools are elsewhere: designating a conservation area, serving a building preservation notice to bring the building into the listing process, or adopting a policy framework that bites on the redevelopment application. Using the prior approval route as a substitute rarely survives scrutiny.

Conservation areas and listed buildings follow a different regime

Before appealing, check that Part 11 applies at all.

Demolition of an unlisted building in a conservation area is "relevant demolition" under section 196D of the 1990 Act and needs planning permission, carrying a criminal offence for carrying it out without consent. Demolition of a listed building, in whole or in part, needs listed building consent under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990, and the heritage tests in section 16 apply. A scheduled monument needs scheduled monument consent.

In those cases the council is deciding the merits of the loss, properly, and the evidence you need is a heritage case rather than a method statement. That means a significance assessment and a justification, which is the territory of a Heritage Statement rather than a demolition notice.

The other common exclusion catches owners out: where a building has been rendered unsafe or uninhabitable by the action or inaction of someone with an interest in the land, and it would be practicable to secure safety by repair or temporary support, the permitted development right is not available. Deliberate neglect is not a route to a clear site.

Restoration of the site as a controlled matter

Restoration is the condition most applicants underplay, and it is the one with real substance in an appeal. The authority is entitled to know what the land will look like after the machines leave.

A method and restoration statement that answers the point usually covers the extent of slab and foundation removal, the treatment of any basement or voids, imported fill and its provenance, finished levels and drainage of the cleared plot, boundary treatment and security, surface treatment such as seeding or crushed hardcore, and the arrangements for maintaining the site until redevelopment. Where asbestos is present, the statement should cross-refer to the survey and the licensed removal arrangements under the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 without pretending that planning controls that process.

Tie the restoration proposals to a timescale. An open-ended "the site will be secured" invites the refusal you are trying to overturn.

Timing, the separate building control notice, and starting early

Two clocks run at once, and confusing them causes most of the trouble.

The Part 11 application sits with the local planning authority and attracts the fee in the current fee regulations, which are indexed, so check the published schedule rather than an older figure. The authority also expects evidence that the site notice required by the Order has been displayed. Starting demolition before the prior approval is given means the permitted development right has not been satisfied, so the works are unauthorised development and exposed to enforcement.

Separately, section 80 of the Building Act 1984 requires notice to the local authority before most demolitions, and the works may not begin until the authority has served a counter-notice under section 81 or six weeks have passed. The counter-notice can impose requirements about shoring, weatherproofing exposed walls, sealing drains and making good. Those requirements are building control matters and an inspector will not adjudicate on them, but they often explain conditions you are asked to accept.

If a deadline is approaching and the application looks likely to fail on fixable grounds, withdrawing and resubmitting a better method statement is sometimes faster than an appeal, for the reasons discussed in our note on withdrawing an application before refusal.

The appeal route and what it is likely to turn on

Refusal of an approval required under a development order is appealable to the Planning Inspectorate under section 78 of the 1990 Act, on the standard timescales for the appeal type, and these appeals are almost always decided by written representations.

Build the appeal around the two reserved matters.

1. Set out the method of demolition in sequence, with the plant, the exclusion zones, the hours and the dust and noise controls, referring to BS 6187 practice for demolition works.
2. Deal with highway impacts: wheel washing, sheeting of loads, routing, and any temporary footway closure.
3. Set out the restoration specification, with levels, security and interim maintenance, and a timescale.
4. Address each refusal reason, separating those within the remit from those outside it, and say plainly why the latter cannot found a refusal under Part 11.
5. Attach the asbestos survey, structural advice and any party wall correspondence as appendices.

Objectors may take part, and their representations tend to concentrate on dust, vermin and the prospect of a long-term gap site, which is exactly where your restoration evidence earns its keep. Our note on what objectors can do once a planning appeal starts sets out how those representations are handled.

Where the building falls outside Part 11 altogether, or the council has designated a conservation area in the meantime, the honest answer is that you need a planning application for demolition with a heritage and redevelopment case attached, rather than an appeal about method.

Draft your method and restoration statement on PlanScope and send it for professional review before it goes in with the application.

This is general guidance, not legal advice; the scope of the permitted development right turns on the specific building and site, so check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.