Crown development: planning applications by government bodies

Crown development planning works the same way as anybody else's for most schemes: a government department or other Crown body applies to the local planning authority, which consults, publicises and decides. Crown immunity from planning control was removed with effect from 2006 by the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, which inserted the Crown provisions now found in Part XIII of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. What survives is a set of special routes for urgent development and for development of national importance, where the application goes to the Secretary of State instead of the council.

Those routes are narrow, and they are the reason people sometimes find that a scheme in their neighbourhood is being decided in Whitehall.

What Crown development means

The expression covers development carried out by or on behalf of the Crown, and the definition in Part XIII is specific about which bodies count. Government departments, the armed forces estate and certain other Crown bodies fall within it. A body that is publicly funded is not automatically a Crown body, so check the definition rather than assuming.

Two further points matter. Crown land can be the subject of an ordinary application made by someone other than the Crown, with the Crown's consent, and the special routes do not apply to that. And the other consent regimes apply to the Crown in the normal way, so listed building consent, conservation area controls and the Building Regulations all bite.

The statutory route and who decides

The default is the ordinary route. The Crown body applies to the local planning authority, pays the fee, and the application is validated, publicised and determined locally, with the usual appeal rights if it is refused. Most Crown applications take this path and attract no particular attention.

Where the development is of national importance, a separate route allows the application to be made directly to the Secretary of State. The Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 made changes in this area, so check which provisions are now in force and what the current procedure is before you rely on a description written earlier. As at October 2026 the position is still settling, and the Planning Inspectorate's published guidance is the reliable source for how a live case is being handled.

The urgent procedure

Section 293A of the 1990 Act 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. Both limbs have to be satisfied, and the Crown body has to explain why.

The procedure compresses the timetable rather than removing scrutiny. The Secretary of State notifies and consults the local planning authority, arranges for the application to be publicised, considers representations, and may appoint an inspector to report. Conditions can be imposed and a planning obligation can accompany the permission. The practical difference for a local resident is that representations go to the department or the Inspectorate rather than to the council, and the window is often short.

Urgency has been used for things like temporary accommodation and defence requirements. The consultation period is the only realistic point of influence, so watch for the notice and respond within it.

How local authorities are consulted

The council does not lose its voice on the national routes. It is consulted formally, and its response typically covers the development plan position, local constraints, highway and drainage matters, and the conditions it would want if permission is granted.

A council response that sets out specific conditions tends to carry further than one that objects in general terms, because the Secretary of State is deciding whether to grant permission rather than whether the council would have. The authority will usually take the response through its own committee or through delegated powers, and that report is a public document worth reading if you want to understand the local position.

Where the scheme is large enough to require environmental impact assessment, the environmental statement is published and consulted on in the same way, and our note on environmental information under the EIA Regulations explains what that material has to contain.

An illustrative estate example

Illustrative example. A defence establishment needs a new single storey training building of about 900 m² inside an existing secure perimeter, on land that is already developed, with no change to the access.

On those facts there is no national importance argument to make and no urgency. The sensible route is an ordinary application to the council: a Planning Statement addressing the development plan, drawings, a drainage statement, an ecology appraisal if the footprint touches grassland inside the perimeter, and a construction management plan. Security considerations affect what can be published, and the usual approach is to agree with the authority what level of detail goes on the public register.

Change two facts, and the route changes. If the building were required within weeks for an operational reason that the department could evidence, and the works were of national importance, the urgent procedure becomes available. Scale alone does not open it.

What it is often confused with

Four regimes get mixed up, and the distinction decides where you send your representations.

Crown development is development by or for the Crown, as described above. Nationally significant infrastructure is a different system entirely, run under the Planning Act 2008 through development consent orders examined by the Planning Inspectorate, and it applies to projects such as major energy and transport schemes whoever promotes them. Development by a local authority on its own land is dealt with through regulation 3 applications, decided by the authority itself with safeguards about publicity and decision making. And a called-in application is an ordinary application that the Secretary of State has directed be referred for a decision, which can happen to any applicant.

The enforcement position has its own provisions. Part XIII contains special enforcement notice powers for unauthorised development on Crown land by someone other than the Crown, which exist because the ordinary enforcement powers do not operate against the Crown in the same way.

Responding to a Crown application

Work out who is deciding before you write anything.

1. Find the application reference and check whether it appears on the council's planning register or on the Inspectorate's case portal.
2. Read the publicity notice for the deadline and the address for representations, because the national routes are not always on the council's system.
3. Set out your points by reference to the development plan and to material considerations, in the same way as any other application.
4. Ask to be notified of amendments and of any inspector's report or hearing.
5. If permission is granted, read the conditions, because the discharge process then follows the ordinary route and our note on approval of details or discharge of conditions explains how that works.

Browse the full list of report types by category if you want to understand what supporting documents a scheme of a given type normally carries.

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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