Section 73 application: the checklist before you submit

A section 73 application varies or removes a condition on an existing planning permission, and the council's decision produces a new permission that sits alongside the original rather than replacing it. That single fact drives most of this checklist. Every condition you still want has to be re-imposed on the new notice, the section 106 position has to be checked against the deed, and the time limit for implementation stays where it was. Work through the points below before you submit a section 73 submission checklist of your own.

Confirming section 73 is the right route

Start by testing the change against the description of development on the original decision notice. Section 73 gives the authority power to grant permission subject to different conditions, and nothing more. In Finney v Welsh Ministers the Court of Appeal held that the description cannot be altered through this route, which ended a long-standing practice of tidying descriptions up on the way through.

So the practical test is simple. Read the description aloud, then read the amended scheme. If the description still describes the scheme accurately, section 73 is available. If it does not, you need a fresh application, or a change to the scheme that brings it back inside the description.

Two other routes sit nearby. Section 96A handles non-material amendments and produces an amendment rather than a new permission. The Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 introduced a further power to vary permissions, and whether it is in force, and how far it reaches, should be checked against the current position on legislation.gov.uk before you rely on it.

Identifying the condition to be varied

Name the condition by number and quote its wording in full in the covering statement. Where the variation affects more than one condition, list each of them.

Councils reject or delay applications that ask, in effect, for the scheme to be changed without naming the condition that carries the change. In most cases the condition is the approved plans condition, because that is where the drawings are tied down. If the change also affects a materials condition, a levels condition or a landscaping condition, those need naming too.

Set out the proposed replacement wording. Officers appreciate being handed the exact text they can paste into the new notice, and a well-drafted replacement condition reduces the risk of something looser coming back.

Superseded and replacement drawings

Build a schedule with three columns: the drawing number and revision approved on the original permission, the drawing number and revision now proposed, and a short note on what changed. Include unchanged drawings in the schedule and mark them as unchanged.

Revision letters cause more validation problems than anything else on a section 73. A drawing submitted as Revision C when the approved plans condition lists Revision B, with no explanation, forces the officer to work out which one governs.

Where the amended drawings change floor areas, state the before and after figures. Where they change heights, give the ridge and eaves heights on both. The officer is checking whether the variation is within the description, and numbers answer that faster than narrative.

Conditions that must be carried forward

The new permission carries only the conditions imposed on it. Go through the original decision notice condition by condition and decide the status of each one.

1. Conditions already discharged. Ask for these to be re-imposed in a form that records the discharge, or expect the council to re-impose them in full and to need a second discharge application.
2. Conditions partly discharged. Identify which parts remain outstanding and say so.
3. Pre-commencement conditions. These matter most, because implementing the new permission without discharging them repeats the original risk.
4. Conditions that are now redundant. Say why, rather than leaving them off the list in silence.

A short table in the covering statement listing every condition, its status and the requested treatment is the single most useful thing you can give the case officer.

The section 106 position

A planning obligation binds the land, but its operative provisions usually hang off a defined permission. If that definition names the original permission and says nothing about later grants, the obligations do not attach to the section 73 permission.

Councils know this. Most will not issue the new decision until a deed of variation or a supplemental deed is completed, and their legal team may be slower than the planning team. Raise it in the covering letter, offer a draft, and build the legal timetable into the programme rather than discovering it at week eight.

Where the original agreement was drafted to cover any permission granted under section 73 of the 1990 Act, say so and quote the clause. It saves everyone a month.

Fee and validation requirements

Section 73 applications carry their own fee under the fee regulations, and the figures are indexed annually, so check the current schedule rather than a figure from an old file. The application is made on the standard form for removal or variation of conditions, with the original permission reference and date.

Local validation lists apply. Many authorities ask for a short supporting statement, the drawings schedule, and updated technical information where the change touches drainage, parking, trees or ecology. A focused Planning Statement explaining the variation and its effects is usually enough, and where the external appearance changes, an updated Design and Access Statement keeps the design narrative consistent with the amended drawings.

Publicity requirements are the same as for the original application type, so the eight or thirteen week clock includes a consultation period. Plan for it.

An illustrative programme

This example is illustrative. A consented scheme for nine dwellings needs the approved plans condition varied to reflect a revised house type on plots four to six, with a 300 mm increase in ridge height. The applicant submits in early March with a drawings schedule, a condition-by-condition table and a draft deed of variation. Consultation runs to late March, the highways officer confirms no change to access, and the decision issues in May with all original conditions re-imposed and the discharged drainage condition recorded as satisfied.

Without the deed of variation prepared in advance, the same application sits with legal services until July.

The time limit that cannot be extended

A section 73 permission inherits the implementation deadline of the original. There is no power to extend the three-year period through this route, and the temporary extension mechanisms used after 2020 have gone.

If the original permission expires within a few months, implement it first through a lawful start on site, then apply for the variation. A material operation carried out in accordance with the original permission, after any pre-commencement conditions are discharged, keeps the permission alive. Get that sequence wrong and the variation is granted on a permission that can no longer be built.

And check whether the site has biodiversity net gain obligations, because a permission granted before the regime applied can bring a gain plan requirement with it when a new permission is granted. That question is worth asking early rather than on the day work starts.

Browse the full list of report types if the variation triggers technical evidence you do not yet hold, or See PlanScope pricing for the options on a single draft.

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.