Crown development and the urgent Crown route

Crown immunity from planning control ended in 2006, so a government department building a prison, a court or a defence facility applies for planning permission like anyone else. The exception is the urgent route in section 293A of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, which allows an application to be made directly to the Secretary of State where the development is of national importance and it is necessary that it be carried out as a matter of urgency. That route bypasses the local planning authority as decision maker, though not as consultee.

For anyone acting on a Crown scheme, or objecting to one, the first question is which route applies. The second is what the applicant has certified to justify using it.

How Crown development reached the ordinary system

The Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 removed the Crown's immunity from planning control with effect from 2006, and inserted a new Part into the 1990 Act dealing with the application of planning law to the Crown. Before that, Crown bodies operated a non-statutory consultation arrangement with councils and could proceed regardless of the outcome.

The change brought Crown land within the ordinary development management process, with adjustments. Crown land has its own definition, enforcement against the Crown works differently through special enforcement notices, and there are provisions dealing with land that is about to cease being Crown land.

The practical result is that most Crown applications are ordinary applications. A new office for a government department, an extension to a hospital on Crown land, a training building at a barracks: all of these go to the council, get consulted on, and are decided locally.

The urgent Crown route

Section 293A allows the appropriate authority to apply directly to the Secretary of State where two conditions are met. The development must be of national importance, and it must be necessary that it is carried out as a matter of urgency.

The application is accompanied by a certificate stating that both conditions are satisfied, and the Secretary of State decides the application rather than the council. Publicity and consultation still happen, on a compressed timetable, and the Secretary of State may cause an inquiry or hearing to be held or may decide on written material.

The two limbs are cumulative and both have to be argued. National importance is not the same as importance to the applicant department. Urgency is about timing rather than convenience, and the certificate is the document a challenger will scrutinise first.

Councils consulted on an urgent Crown application respond as a consultee. Their committee can resolve to object, and that objection goes into the Secretary of State's consideration, but the decision is not theirs.

What the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 added

The 2023 Act created a further route for Crown development of national importance that does not meet the urgency test, allowing such applications to be made to the Secretary of State rather than to the local authority. The intention was to give a middle path between the ordinary local route and the emergency one.

Commencement is the point to check. Provisions in the 2023 Act have been brought into force in stages, and any article written about it needs an as-at date. As at September 2026, confirm the current position on legislation.gov.uk and in the relevant commencement regulations before advising a client that the route is available.

Where the route is open, expect it to be used for the same categories that produce urgent applications now: custodial estate, defence, border and asylum accommodation, and major public infrastructure on Crown land.

Evidence a Crown application still needs

Nothing about the route changes the technical evidence base. The Secretary of State applies the development plan and material considerations in the same way a council would, and the supporting documents look familiar.

• A planning statement setting out the policy case and the justification for the route used
• Design and access material proportionate to the scheme
• Transport evidence, with a Transport Assessment where the trip generation crosses the usual thresholds
• Ecology, including biodiversity net gain unless an exemption applies
• Heritage assessment where designated assets or their settings are affected
• Flood risk, drainage, contamination and noise as the site requires

Environmental impact assessment applies to Crown development in the same way as to anything else. Where the scheme is Schedule 1 development, or Schedule 2 development above the thresholds with likely significant effects, an Environmental Impact Assessment is required, and the Environmental Statement must be prepared by competent experts under the 2017 Regulations. That is a legal requirement rather than a preference, and an AI-assisted draft is a starting point for those experts rather than a substitute for them.

Security considerations complicate the submission. Some Crown schemes withhold detail for legitimate reasons, and the balance between that and the public's ability to comment is one of the recurring tensions in this area.

Objecting to a Crown application

Where the application goes to the council, object as you would to any application, through the council's public register within the publicity period.

Where it goes to the Secretary of State under the urgent route, the publicity is run centrally and the consultation period is usually short. Watch for the site notice and the press notice, and write to the address given rather than to the council, which cannot forward representations into a process it does not run.

Three lines of argument tend to get traction. The first is that the certificate is wrong, because the development is not of national importance or is not urgent. The second is ordinary planning merit: harm to heritage, highway safety, flood risk, landscape. The third is procedural, where the publicity or consultation has fallen short of what the rules require.

Tracking the paperwork on a Crown scheme takes more effort than a local application, and the general technique is the same as registering and tracking a neighbouring application. Where the council is both consultee and landowner, the overlap with the rules for how a council grants planning permission to itself is worth understanding.

Enforcement and what follows a permission

Enforcement against the Crown runs through special enforcement notices rather than the ordinary enforcement notice regime, reflecting the position that Crown bodies are not prosecuted in the same way. In practice breaches are resolved by negotiation, and the special notice is rarely used.

Conditions imposed on a Crown permission bind the development in the ordinary way, and discharge of conditions applications go to whichever body granted the permission. Where the Secretary of State decided the application, the discharge route is central rather than local, which surprises contractors expecting to deal with the council.

If Crown land is later disposed of, the permission runs with the land. A site permitted for a government use and then sold may need a fresh application for the new occupier's use, depending on how the permission and its conditions were drafted. Read the description of development before assuming otherwise.

Timescales and what to expect

An ordinary Crown application runs on the same determination periods as any other: eight weeks for a minor scheme, thirteen for a major, sixteen where environmental impact assessment applies. Extensions of time are common on large Crown schemes because the consultee list is long, taking in statutory bodies, the highway authority and often a safeguarding interest.

The urgent route is faster by design, and that speed is the whole point of it. Publicity periods are compressed, and where an inquiry is held it is arranged quickly. Anyone intending to take part needs to be watching for the notices rather than waiting for a letter.

Decisions are published with reasons, in the same form as an appeal decision, and they can be challenged in the High Court on legal grounds within the statutory period. Judicial review of the certificate itself is the other route, and it has to be brought promptly.

This is general guidance, not legal advice. Check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it.