Finding a local validation list and checking it is current

A local validation list planning requirement only bites if the council published the list within the two years before you submitted. That single rule, in article 11 of the Development Management Procedure Order 2015, decides most validation arguments, and it is the first thing to check when a council asks for a document you did not budget for.

Validation is administrative rather than a judgement on merits. The council checks that the application is accompanied by the information the national requirements demand and by anything on its own published local list, then registers it and starts the clock.

The national requirements that apply everywhere

Every application for planning permission needs the completed form, the correct fee, a location plan identifying the land by a red line, a site plan, the ownership certificate and, where the land is or was agricultural, the agricultural holdings certificate. A design and access statement is required for major development and for certain development in conservation areas and World Heritage Sites, and for applications for listed building consent.

These come from the Order and from the fees regulations, and no council can waive them. An incorrect ownership certificate is the most common single reason a submission is returned, because the applicant signed certificate A while a strip of the access is registered to a neighbour.

Everything beyond that list is local.

Finding the local list

Councils publish local lists in different places and under different names: local validation requirements, local information requirements, the validation checklist. Look in the planning section of the council's website rather than on the national portal, because the portal links to the council's page rather than holding the document.

Three practical points. Download the document rather than reading it on screen, because pages change without notice. Check whether the authority publishes different lists for householder, minor and major development, since many do and the householder list is much shorter. And check whether a joint authority or a shared planning service operates one list across several districts, which is common in two tier areas.

Where the site sits across a boundary, both authorities' lists apply to their respective parts, and the applications are separate.

Why the publication date matters

Article 11 allows a council to require local information only where the requirement was set out in a list published by the authority within the two years immediately before the application is made. A list last published four years ago cannot lawfully be enforced against you.

Find the publication or review date on the face of the document. If it is absent, ask the council in writing when the list was published and adopted, and keep the answer. Some councils republish an unchanged list each year specifically to keep it enforceable, which is legitimate.

This is not a point to raise aggressively on every application. It is the point that settles the argument when a council demands a survey that costs several thousand pounds on a scheme where it makes no difference.

Requirements a council cannot impose

Beyond the two year rule, a local requirement has to be reasonable having regard to the nature and scale of the proposed development, and it must relate to a matter that is a material consideration for that application.

Requests that fail one of those tests turn up regularly. A full transport assessment for a two unit infill on a quiet street. A tree survey where there is no tree within influencing distance. A biodiversity metric on a development that falls within an exemption from the biodiversity gain condition. An energy statement where the local plan policy it supports was deleted at examination.

The answer is not to ignore the request. Write to the validation officer, set out which limb of article 11 the requirement fails and why, and offer a proportionate alternative, for example a short technical note in place of a full assessment. Most disputes end there.

Where a document is needed, get it early. Constraints drive the list, which is why the constraints work described in building a constraints plan before the design starts pays for itself at validation.

When an application is refused validation

Councils issue an invalidation notice listing what is missing. The determination period does not start until the application is valid, so a week spent arguing is a week added to the programme.

You have three options. Supply what is asked for, which is usually quickest where the item costs little. Challenge the requirement in writing against the tests above. Or use the statutory appeal route: where an authority refuses to validate on the basis of a local list requirement, legislation gives applicants a means of taking that refusal to the Secretary of State rather than being left without a remedy. That route is slow, and most applicants use the threat of it rather than the process itself.

Keep everything in writing, and copy the case officer as well as the validation team. Validation is often handled by administrative staff working to a checklist, and the case officer sometimes takes a different view of what is proportionate.

Building one checklist from two lists

Merge the national and local requirements into a single submission schedule at the start of the job, not the week before submission. The schedule should carry, for each item, the source (national or local list), who is producing it, the cost, the lead time and the status.

Survey lead times are what break programmes. A tree survey can be done in most weather, while bat emergence surveys run only in the summer months and a delay of a fortnight in commissioning can cost a year. Put the seasonal items at the top of the schedule.

Two documents are worth preparing even where the list does not demand them. A planning statement that addresses the relevant development plan policies directly, and a design and access statement where the scheme's design rationale is not obvious from the drawings. Officers write better reports when the policy analysis is already on the file.

Recording the version you relied on

Save a dated copy of the local list in the project folder on the day you start the submission schedule, and note the publication date on the schedule itself.

Do the same with the fee calculation and the council's published pre-application advice. If the list changes between your fee quote and your submission, you have evidence of what was in force, and if a new requirement appears after submission you can point to the version that applied.

An illustrative example. A practice submits a minor application for four dwellings in June. The council requests a noise assessment under a local list requirement introduced in May, after the design was fixed. The list published at the date of the application is the one that applies, and the submission schedule, with its dated copy attached, settles the question in one email rather than three weeks of correspondence.

Validation arguments are almost always about proportionality rather than principle. Getting the list, dating it and building the schedule around it removes most of them before they start.

Enter your postcode on PlanScope to see which reports a site is likely to need, then check that list against your council's published validation requirements before you commission anything.

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.