Prior approval refused: appeal, resubmit or apply in full

A prior approval refused notice is not the end of the route, and the choice between appealing, resubmitting and applying in full usually turns on one question: can the deficiency the council identified be cured within the closed list of matters the class allows it to consider? If it can, resubmission is almost always faster. If it cannot, a full application buys you the ability to argue merits that the prior approval regime simply does not let anyone discuss.

Before any of that, check the dates. More prior approval schemes are rescued by the 56-day point than by any appeal.

Why a refusal is appealable

Section 78 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 allows an appeal where a local planning authority refuses an application for an approval required under a development order. A prior approval application under Schedule 2 of the GPDO 2015 is exactly that, so the refusal carries an appeal right in the ordinary way.

What differs from a full application appeal is the scope. The inspector is confined to the matters the relevant class specifies. On a Class MA conversion, that means transport impacts, contamination, flooding, noise from commercial premises, natural light to habitable rooms, fire safety where relevant, and in a conservation area the effect of losing the ground floor use. Nothing else is in play, including design, housing mix and local plan policy on town centre vitality.

That narrowness cuts both ways. It limits what you can argue and it limits what the council can defend. A refusal reason that strays outside the list is a strong appeal point on its own.

Check the 56-day point first

For most prior approval classes under Part 3, the development is permitted if the authority does not notify the applicant of its determination within 56 days beginning with the day after the application was received, provided the applicant has complied with the requirements of the class and has not begun development before that date.

So the first thing to do with a refusal notice is check three dates: the date the application was received by the authority, the date of the decision, and the date the decision was sent to you. A determination made on day 58, or made in time but not notified in time, may mean you already have the benefit of the right.

This is not a technicality to be embarrassed about using. It is how the regime is designed to work, and it is the reason authorities issue Part 3 decisions in a hurry. Get the receipt date from the authority's own acknowledgement rather than from the portal date, and keep the envelope or the email header.

If the 56 days have passed without a valid notification, take advice on confirming the position formally before you build. A certificate of lawfulness for a proposed use under section 192 is the clean way to put that beyond argument, and lenders prefer it to a solicitor's opinion.

Reading the refusal against the closed list

Assuming the refusal is valid, read it forensically. Take each reason and ask two questions.

Is this reason within the matters the class allows? If the authority has refused on the appearance of the building, or on the loss of a commercial unit outside a conservation area, or on unit sizes where the class does not mention them, that reason is vulnerable.

Is this reason curable with evidence? Most are. The commonest refusal reasons across residential conversions are inadequate natural light to habitable rooms, insufficient information on contamination, absence of a noise assessment where the building adjoins commercial premises, and inadequate parking or servicing information.

Natural light is the one that decides whether you resubmit or redesign. A refusal on light to a single rear bedroom in a deep unit can sometimes be answered by a room-by-room assessment the original application lacked. It can equally mean the plan depth does not work and the unit mix has to change. Test that honestly before spending anything, because resubmitting the same layout with a longer report rarely succeeds.

Resubmission, and the fee question

Resubmission means a fresh prior approval application addressing the reasons given. It runs on a new 56-day clock and, where the deficiency was evidential rather than physical, it is usually determined positively.

On fees, the position needs checking rather than assuming. The Fees Regulations provide a concession for one further application of the same character on the same site within a period after the first decision, subject to conditions. Whether that concession extends to a prior approval application of the same description is a question for the current Regulations and for the authority's own practice, which varies. Ask the validation team in writing before you submit, and budget for the fee if the answer is unclear.

Two practical steps make a resubmission land better. Address the refusal reasons in numbered order in a short covering statement, so the officer can see each one answered. And send the draft technical reports to the case officer informally before submitting where the relationship allows it, because an officer who has already seen the daylight assessment will validate and determine faster.

Where the scheme has changed rather than the evidence, the mechanics of amending a prior approval scheme are worth understanding first, because a prior approval is not a planning permission and the familiar amendment routes do not apply to it.

Appeal procedure and timescales

Written representations is the normal procedure for these appeals. Faster tracks exist for householder and for minor commercial appeals, and the Planning Inspectorate publishes current average timescales by procedure, which move. Check the published figures rather than relying on a number you remember, because they have varied considerably.

Time limits to lodge an appeal differ by application type and are set out in the Development Management Procedure Order 2015. Read the decision notice, which states the deadline, and diary it the day it arrives.

An appeal makes sense in three situations. Where a refusal reason falls outside the matters the class permits. Where the evidence was adequate and the authority's judgement on it was wrong, particularly on natural light where a competing assessment exists. And where resubmission is blocked, for instance because a vacancy or prior use condition can no longer be satisfied on a fresh application date.

It makes less sense where the underlying problem is physical. An inspector applying the same closed list to the same deep floorplate will reach the same answer, several months later.

When a full application is the faster route

Count the consents you need. A Class MA conversion authorises the change of use and nothing else, so a scheme involving a new entrance, altered shopfront, new window openings or a bin store already needs a separate planning application. If that application is going in anyway, folding the whole scheme into one full application removes a decision from the programme rather than adding one.

A full application also makes sense where the lawful use is disputed, where the prior use or vacancy conditions are marginal, or where the authority's objection is about something the closed list does not cover and will therefore resurface as a refusal reason on the parallel application.

The trade is real. A full application costs more, takes longer nominally, opens the scheme to design and policy objections, and invites neighbour representations. But it lets you argue the planning balance, offer conditions, negotiate unit sizes and resolve the external works in one decision. On a funded conversion with a contractor waiting, one decision in sixteen weeks often beats two decisions in twenty-four.

Watch the conditions if you take that route. A permission can carry a condition withdrawing permitted development rights, and removing a condition that withdrew permitted development rights later is a separate application with its own risk.

Costing the delay

Make this a calculation rather than an instinct. For a funded conversion, work out the monthly cost of delay: finance costs on the facility, holding costs including rates and insurance, any contractor standby or remobilisation charge, and the rent or sales receipts deferred.

Then set that monthly figure against the realistic duration of each option: a fresh prior approval at up to 56 days plus preparation, an appeal at the Inspectorate's current published average for the procedure, or a full application at the statutory period plus any extension of time the authority asks for.

Two adjustments people forget. Appeals do not pause the clock on a lapsing consent elsewhere in the scheme, and a prior approval that has not been implemented has its own completion deadline, so check what happens when a prior approval lapses before assuming the fallback is still available.

An illustrative example. A first floor office over a shop, refused under Class MA on natural light to two rooms and on the absence of a noise assessment. The noise point was purely evidential. The light point affected one of the two rooms. The workable answer was a resubmission with a room-by-room daylight assessment, a noise survey and a revised internal layout combining the two rooms into one larger unit, determined inside 56 days. An appeal on the original scheme would have taken months and probably failed on the same room.

Recording the outcome for a lender

Whichever route succeeds, assemble a file a lender's solicitor can accept without further enquiry.

1. The prior approval or planning permission with the approved plans listed.
2. Evidence of compliance with each condition of the class, including the prior use period and the vacancy period with the underlying documents.
3. Confirmation of the completion deadline and the date development began.
4. Any certificate of lawfulness obtained.
5. The building regulations position, kept separate and complete.
6. Where the 56-day route was relied on, the receipt acknowledgement, the absence of a valid notification and the advice taken on it.

A short planning statement drawing those threads together at the point of completion is worth more to a refinancing conversation in two years than anyone expects at the time.

Enter your postcode on PlanScope to see which reports your site 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, and note that a Lawful Development Certificate is the only formal way to confirm that development or a use is lawful. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.