The planning history section of a planning statement

The planning history section of a planning statement does one job: it tells the case officer what has already been decided about this land, so that the current application is judged against the right starting point. Get it right and you have framed the decision. Get it wrong, or leave it out, and the officer builds their own version from the register, usually including the refusal you hoped nobody would find.

For a self-builder assembling a first application, this is the least expensive section to write well. Everything in it is public, free and verifiable.

What the section is for

A planning statement is an argument. The planning history is the part of that argument that establishes what the site is, in planning terms, before the proposal is considered at all.

Three things flow from it. The first is the lawful use and the physical baseline against which any change is measured. The second is the set of conditions and obligations still controlling the land, which may restrict what can be done without a further application. The third is the fallback: what the applicant could lawfully build if this application were refused, which the courts have long accepted can be a material consideration where the fallback is realistic rather than theoretical.

Officers check the register regardless. Writing the section is not disclosure for its own sake, it is the chance to characterise the history before someone else does.

Assembling the references from the register

Every local planning authority keeps a public register of applications under the Development Management Procedure Order 2015, and almost all of them expose it through an online search. Start there rather than with the seller's pack.

Search by address, then by postcode, then by the neighbouring properties, because older records are often indexed under a farm name, a plot number or a street that has since been renamed. Site history predating the mid-1970s is frequently absent from online registers entirely, and for anything that old you are asking the authority for a paper search or looking at historic mapping.

For each entry, record the reference number exactly as the council writes it, the date of the decision, the description of development as it appeared on the decision notice, and the outcome. Copy the description verbatim. Paraphrasing it is how applicants end up describing a permission for "two dwellings" that was actually for "the erection of one dwelling and a detached garage with ancillary accommodation", which is a different thing when the question of a second residential unit comes up.

Download the decision notices themselves, not just the summary line from the search results. The conditions are on the notice.

Which decisions to include and which to leave out

Include everything that affects the land in the application site, and anything on adjoining land that the current proposal relies on for access, drainage or parking.

Include, as a rule:

1. All permissions still capable of implementation, with the conditions controlling when work may start and the dates by which it must
2. Refusals and appeal decisions from roughly the last ten years, or older where the reason for refusal is still live policy
3. Lawful development certificates, whether granted or refused
4. Prior approval determinations under the General Permitted Development Order, including those where the authority determined that prior approval was not required
5. Enforcement notices, breach of condition notices and any planning contravention notice served
6. Section 106 agreements and unilateral undertakings, with the date and the parties

Leave out the noise. Discharge of condition applications for a scheme that was never built, advertisement consents on a shop three doors away, and tree works notifications unrelated to the proposal simply lengthen the table. If a decision has no bearing on the current proposal, say in one line that the remaining entries are not material rather than listing them.

The exception is where an officer might reasonably expect to see something. A long run of refusals for residential development on a field is material even if each one predates the current local plan, because the officer will find them and the omission looks tactical.

Conditions that still bind the land

This is the part most first-time applicants miss. Conditions attached to an implemented permission continue to control the land, and they run with it rather than with the person who obtained the permission.

Conditions that routinely cause trouble include removal of permitted development rights under Class A of Part 1 of the GPDO, occupancy restrictions tying a dwelling to agricultural or rural workers, restrictions on the use of a garage or annexe as separate accommodation, landscaping conditions requiring retention of specific trees, and hours of operation on a commercial unit.

Where a condition blocks the proposal, the honest route is an application under section 73 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 to vary it, or section 96A for a non-material amendment, and the planning statement should say which route is being used and why. Where a condition is being complied with, say so and give the reference of the discharge application.

One caution. A planning statement is not the place to assert that a condition has lapsed or become unenforceable. That is a legal question, and the formal answer comes from a certificate of lawfulness rather than from a paragraph in a supporting document.

Refusals and how to address them directly

A previous refusal is the single most useful document in the pack, because it tells you exactly what the authority objected to and in what words.

Take each reason for refusal and answer it in turn. State the reason, state what has changed, and identify whether the change is in the scheme, in the evidence or in the policy. A scheme refused on highway safety that now has a visibility splay agreed with the highway authority has changed in the scheme. A scheme refused for lack of an ecology survey that now has one has changed in the evidence. A scheme refused against a policy since superseded by an adopted local plan has changed in policy, and that needs care, because the authority will want to see that the replacement policy really does point the other way.

Where a refusal was upheld on appeal, quote the inspector's conclusion and deal with it. An inspector's decision is not binding precedent on your site, and describing it that way overstates it, but it is a clear indication of how the issue has been approached and an officer will treat it seriously.

Fallback positions worth stating

A fallback argument runs: if this application is refused, the applicant can lawfully carry out something else, and that something else is worse for the interest the objection seeks to protect.

For it to carry weight the fallback has to be real. That usually means an extant permission with a lawful implementation, or works that are demonstrably permitted development. Stating that a barn "could" be converted under Class Q without having tested whether the building qualifies is not a fallback, it is a hope, and officers see through it quickly.

Where a genuine fallback exists, set out the evidence for it in the history section and draw the comparison later in the statement. Keep the two separate. The history section records facts; the argument belongs in the assessment.

Presenting it as a table

Prose buries this material. A table is read.

Four columns are usually enough, with a short note under the table for anything that needs explaining: live conditions, the status of a section 106, or the reason an entry is included. Where the history is long, split it into decisions affecting the application site and decisions on adjoining land.

The same structural discipline applies to other supporting documents, whether that is the community feedback section of a Statement of Community Involvement or the equality analysis in an Equalities Impact Assessment. Each is a section where facts are recorded once, clearly, and the argument is made elsewhere. Where the site has an industrial past, the history table also flags what a ground gas assessment will need to look at, because a former use recorded on the register is often the first evidence of potential contamination.

And a last practical point. Update the table immediately before submission. Applications on neighbouring land get decided while yours is being drawn, and an officer who spots a decision from three weeks ago that you have missed will wonder what else is missing.

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.

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