Informatives on a decision notice

Planning informatives on a decision notice are notes, not obligations. They sit after the conditions, they usually start with words like "the applicant is advised", and nothing in them can be enforced. That single distinction explains most of the confusion they cause: an applicant who treats an informative as a requirement does unnecessary work, and one who ignores a condition because it reads like advice ends up in breach.

What an informative is and is not

A decision notice has a fixed anatomy. The description of development, the decision, the conditions with a reason stated against each, the list of approved drawings, a statement about how the authority engaged with the applicant, and the appeal rights. Informatives sit outside all of that.

They exist because a planning permission answers only one question: whether the development is acceptable in planning terms. It does not clear building regulations, it does not confer private rights, and it does not deal with the twenty other consents a project might need. Informatives are how a case officer points at those.

The wording gives them away. Conditions are imperative and carry a reason. Informatives advise, note, remind and draw attention.

Why informatives cannot be enforced

Enforcement of conditions runs through section 187A of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, which allows a breach of condition notice where a condition has not been complied with. There is no equivalent power for an informative, because an informative imposes nothing to breach.

That is not a loophole. It follows from the structure: a condition has to be imposed lawfully, satisfy the six tests in Planning Practice Guidance and carry a stated reason, and a note appended to the notice does none of those things.

Courts read a decision notice as a whole, and an informative may occasionally help resolve a real ambiguity in the wording of a condition. That is a long way from an informative creating an obligation of its own, and no applicant should plan on the basis that it might.

Common informatives and what they signal

The standard list is worth knowing, because each entry points at a separate process with its own timetable.

The protected species informative deserves particular attention. Wildlife legislation operates independently of planning permission, so a permission granted without an ecological condition does not authorise anything that would otherwise be an offence. Where a scheme touches a European site, the habitats regulations assessment obligations sit on the authority regardless of what the notice says.

Where an informative should have been a condition

This is the part worth checking on every notice you receive. Where an officer has written "the applicant is advised to install obscure glazing to the first floor side window", and the overlooking was a genuine planning objection, the authority has advised where it should have imposed.

Two consequences follow. The applicant is free to ignore the advice, which is sometimes exactly what they want. And the authority has lost its control, which is why a neighbour who spots it may complain and why a later enforcement request will go nowhere.

If you are the applicant and the informative is in your favour, do nothing. If you are the applicant and you would rather the point were settled, ask for it in writing and keep the reply, because an officer's written confirmation that no condition was needed is useful evidence later.

If you are a neighbour, the omission is worth raising before the decision is issued rather than after. Once the notice is out, the authority cannot add a condition to it.

Using informatives to spot other consents needed

Read the informatives as a checklist of what the permission does not do. On a typical scheme they will point at building regulations, highway agreements, drainage and sewer approvals, and the discharge of conditions.

What they frequently miss is just as useful to know. Listed building consent, advertisement consent, tree works consent, a protected species licence, an environmental permit, a licence from the fire authority and a premises licence all sit outside planning, and a case officer with a busy workload will not always list them.

Build your own list at the start of the project instead of relying on the notice. A short consents schedule kept alongside the Planning Statement saves the discovery three weeks before you want to start.

Asking for one to be added

Applicants do sometimes want an informative, most often to record an agreed interpretation: that a particular drawing supersedes another, or that a use falls within a particular class.

Ask by all means, and case officers are usually willing. But understand what you are getting. An informative recording an interpretation is evidence of what the parties understood, not a determination. Where the point actually matters, the reliable routes are a properly worded approved drawings condition, a section 96A amendment, or a certificate of lawfulness under section 191 or 192, each of which produces something that binds.

Ask before the decision is drafted rather than after it is issued, because a notice cannot be reissued to add a note.

Illustrative example: an applicant agrees with the case officer during determination that a garden room is ancillary to the house and needs no separate unit assessment. An informative recording that agreement is helpful, and it is not conclusive. If the point is later challenged, a certificate of lawfulness for the proposed use costs a fee and produces a determination the council cannot go behind.

Reading the notice as a whole

A short discipline on receiving any permission pays for itself.

1. Check the description of development against what you applied for, word for word.
2. Check the approved drawings list, including revision numbers, since a wrong revision is the commonest error on a notice.
3. Separate the conditions into pre-commencement, pre-occupation and in-perpetuity, and diarise each trigger.
4. Read the reason attached to each condition, because that is what an inspector will look at if you later seek to vary it.
5. Read the informatives last, as a list of other people you now need to talk to.

Where the notice never arrives at all, that is a different problem with its own route, set out under non-determination and the deemed refusal appeal.

PlanScope drafts the documents that go into an application and flags where a professional still needs to supply site-specific facts. Browse the 66 report types to see what a scheme is likely to need.

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.