Commencement and completion notices under the 2023 Act

A completion notice planning permission question usually starts in the wrong place, because three different things in English planning are called a commencement notice and two different things are called a completion notice. The Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 added build-out transparency measures to the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, including a duty to notify the authority when development is expected to begin and when it actually begins, and annual development progress reports for prescribed schemes. It also reworked the completion notice power that already existed in the 1990 Act.

Several of those provisions depend on regulations. As at the date of writing, check the commencement position for each one on legislation.gov.uk before advising a client, because the Act's provisions have been brought into force in stages.

Why build-out reporting was introduced

The policy concern is the gap between permissions granted and homes delivered. Authorities grant consent, count the units towards supply, and then have no visibility of whether or when anything is built.

The 2023 Act's answer is information rather than compulsion. Authorities get told when development starts, get annual reports on progress for prescribed developments, and in some circumstances can take earlier non-delivery into account when deciding whether to determine a further application from the same applicant.

It is worth being clear about what the measures do not do. They do not create a duty to build, they do not impose a financial penalty for slow delivery, and they do not shorten the life of a permission that has been lawfully implemented.

The commencement notice requirement

The Act inserts a duty on a person carrying out development to give the local planning authority notice of the date development is expected to begin, before it begins, and notice of the date it actually began.

Two things follow for a developer. First, the notice is served on the planning authority and is a planning document, distinct from anything served under the levy regulations. Second, the date given has to be right, because it fixes the point from which the authority measures progress and it sits on the public record.

The levy version is the one that catches people financially. A community infrastructure levy commencement notice is served under the levy regulations, and failing to serve it before starting work removes instalment rights and triggers a surcharge. That is a different form, a different recipient team and a different consequence, as covered in what happens if you miss a CIL commencement notice.

Serve both. The most expensive mistake in this area is assuming that one notice satisfies the other.

Development progress reports

For prescribed developments, the Act requires annual reports to the authority on progress, made by prescribed persons and containing prescribed information. The content sits in regulations rather than on the face of the Act.

Plan for the reporting to ask about completions to date, units under construction, the expected completion date and the reasons for any change since the last report. Keep the records from the start rather than reconstructing them at the year end, because reconstruction is where inaccurate statements come from, and an inaccurate report on a public register is worse than a late one.

On a phased site, decide early how a phase maps to the reporting unit. A scheme with phase boundaries in the section 106 agreement that differ from those in the reserved matters approvals will produce reports that nobody can reconcile.

Completion notices and what they do

A completion notice is the older power and it is serious. Where development has begun but the authority considers it will not be completed within a reasonable period, it may serve a notice stating that the permission will cease to have effect after a specified period if the development is not completed by then.

The period must be a reasonable one, and the Act sets a floor below which it cannot fall. The 2023 reforms changed the procedure so that an authority no longer needs the Secretary of State's confirmation to bring a notice into effect, with a right of appeal instead.

The effect is limited and precise. When the notice takes effect, the permission ceases to have effect so far as the development is not completed. Work already lawfully carried out is not made unlawful, but there is no permission to finish the remainder, and anything incomplete becomes a planning problem rather than a construction one.

Completion notices are rare. Authorities use them on stalled sites that have become a local nuisance rather than as a delivery tool, and the procedure is slow enough that a developer who engages will usually have time to respond.

Consequences for phased schemes

The phased site is where these provisions bite hardest, for three reasons.

Commencement of a phase may or may not be commencement of the development, depending on how the permission and its conditions are drafted. A condition requiring each phase to be substantially completed before the next begins changes the analysis again.

A completion notice can be directed at what is incomplete. On a site where phases one and two are finished and phase three is untouched, the consequence of a notice is the loss of permission for phase three, which may or may not matter depending on whether outline permission could be renewed.

And the progress reporting will follow whatever unit the regulations prescribe, which may not match the commercial phasing.

The practical answer is to define phases once, in the permission, and use the same definitions everywhere. Where the permission is an outline, the phase definitions belong in the parameter plans rather than only in the agreement.

Record keeping a developer needs

Six things, kept from day one and stored somewhere that survives a change of project manager.

1. A dated record of the material operation relied on as commencement, with photographs and the site diary entry.
2. Copies of every notice served, with proof of service and the date of receipt.
3. Discharge of any pre-commencement condition, with the authority's written confirmation.
4. Phase boundaries as approved, cross-referenced to the permission and to any agreement.
5. A running completions log by plot, with the date of the building control completion certificate.
6. A short note of any event that changed the programme, with the date.

That list is not onerous. It is also the material a progress report, a levy dispute or a completion notice appeal will all draw on, and reconstructing it three years later is expensive.

Checking which provisions are in force

Do not rely on a summary, including this one, for commencement status. Open the Act on legislation.gov.uk, look at the commencement information for the relevant section, and check whether the enabling regulations have been made.

Announced but uncommenced provisions are common in this Act, and the pattern of staged commencement means two sections sitting next to each other can be in different states. Where a client's decision depends on it, put the date of your check in the advice.

The planning law timeline is a place to follow reform news, and the broader practice of telling the council when you start is covered in commencement notices and what developers tell the council.

Where non-delivery on an earlier permission may affect a future application, the supporting Planning Statement should address it directly rather than leaving the authority to raise it.

This is general guidance, not legal advice; 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.