When a stop notice gives rise to a compensation claim

There is no right of appeal against a stop notice. It takes effect on the date it specifies, contravening it is a criminal offence from that date, and the only routes of challenge are an appeal against the underlying enforcement notice or judicial review. What the statute gives you instead is a compensation entitlement, payable by the local planning authority where the enforcement notice is later quashed on grounds other than the planning merits, where it is varied so the activity falls outside it, where it is withdrawn other than because permission has been granted, or where the stop notice itself is withdrawn.

So stop notice compensation in planning is the remedy for having been stopped wrongly, rather than for having been stopped at all. Win your appeal on ground (a), and you get nothing.

What a stop notice prohibits

Section 183 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 lets an authority serve a stop notice prohibiting the carrying out of any activity that is, or is included in, the matters alleged in an enforcement notice. It cannot stand alone. The enforcement notice comes first, and the stop notice attaches to it.

Three statutory limits apply:

• it cannot prohibit the use of a building as a dwellinghouse
• it cannot prohibit an activity that has been carried out, continuously or not, for more than four years ending with the service of the notice
• that four-year protection does not apply to building, engineering, mining or other operations, or to the deposit of refuse or waste

The second and third together mean an established unauthorised use is often beyond the reach of a stop notice while a half-built structure or a waste operation is not. Read the prohibited activities in the notice word by word, because a notice that prohibits more than the enforcement notice alleges is vulnerable.

Its relationship to the enforcement notice

The stop notice is parasitic on the enforcement notice, and that relationship is the basis of both the challenge and the compensation.

If the enforcement notice falls because the matters alleged did not occur, or did not constitute a breach, or because the authority could no longer take enforcement action, the stop notice falls with it and the compensation entitlement arises. If the enforcement notice is upheld, the stop notice was properly served and nothing is payable.

The critical asymmetry is ground (a). Where the inspector concludes that planning permission ought to be granted for what was being done, the enforcement notice is quashed, but no compensation follows, because the authority was entitled to act against a breach that existed at the time. Appellants who plead only ground (a) sometimes win the appeal and lose the compensation claim in the same decision, and how an appeal decision letter is structured shows where the inspector records which grounds succeeded.

Absence of a separate appeal right

Two consequences follow from there being no appeal.

The first is that you must comply. Contravening a stop notice is an offence from the date it takes effect, and conviction carries an unlimited fine in the magistrates' court. Continuing in the belief that the notice is bad is not a strategy, it is an additional charge.

The second is that the timetable is set by the notice rather than by you. A stop notice takes effect on a date that cannot be earlier than three days after service, unless the authority states special reasons for an earlier date, and not later than 28 days after service. Check the service and the dates immediately, because a defect there is one of the few arguments available.

Judicial review remains, on ordinary public law grounds, with the six-week promptness requirement that applies to planning challenges. It is rarely proportionate on its own, but it is sometimes the only route where the notice prohibits activity outside the enforcement notice's scope and the authority will not withdraw.

When compensation becomes payable

Section 186 sets out the four triggers. The enforcement notice is quashed on grounds other than the planning merits ground. The enforcement notice is varied, other than on that ground, so that the activity ceases to be one prohibited by the stop notice. The authority withdraws the enforcement notice for a reason other than the grant of planning permission. Or the authority withdraws the stop notice.

Two exclusions cut the entitlement down. No compensation is payable in respect of prohibiting an activity that in fact constituted or contributed to a breach of planning control. And the entitlement can be reduced or lost where the claimant failed to co-operate with a planning contravention notice requiring information, which is a direct incentive to answer those notices properly rather than ignoring them.

The temporary stop notice under section 171E is a different instrument, served without an enforcement notice, running for a statutory period that the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 extended, and carrying its own narrower compensation provisions. Do not read across between the two regimes.

Heads of claim and evidence of loss

Compensation covers loss or damage directly attributable to the prohibition. In practice the claim is built from six categories:

1. Abortive expenditure on works that had to stop and will have to be redone, including making the site safe and weathertight.
2. Standing time for plant, scaffolding and labour that could not be redeployed, with hire invoices and the subcontract terms.
3. Contractual liabilities triggered by the stoppage, including extension of time costs, preliminaries and any liquidated damages passed on.
4. Lost profit or lost income during the period of prohibition, evidenced from accounts and from the contracts that were interrupted.
5. Professional fees incurred in responding, excluding the costs of the appeal itself, which belong in a costs application rather than here.
6. Finance costs attributable to the delay, where the funding arrangements show the additional interest.

Keep the record from day one. Date-stamped site photographs, a daily log of plant and labour on site, correspondence with the contractor, and a schedule of the works stopped at the date the notice took effect are what make the claim assessable. Reconstructed figures get discounted heavily.

Where the authority shifts its position during the appeal, that affects both the compensation trigger and any costs application, and what happens when the council changes its case sets out the pattern.

Time limits for a compensation claim

Claims have to be made to the authority within the period prescribed by the Town and Country Planning General Regulations, which run from the relevant decision or withdrawal. Check the current regulation and diary the date the day your appeal is decided, because the limit is short by comparison with ordinary civil claims and there is no discretion to extend.

Where the authority disputes the claim, or the amount, the dispute is determined by the Upper Tribunal in the same way as a compulsory purchase compensation dispute. That means the evidential standard is a valuation standard, with expert evidence, so the quantum work usually needs a surveyor as well as a planner. Compensation entitlements elsewhere in the planning system follow a similar structure, and claiming compensation after an Article 4 direction works through the parallel process.

Practical steps on receipt

Do these in order, on the day the notice arrives.

Stop the prohibited activity, and only that activity. Over-complying costs you money you cannot recover, because the loss has to be attributable to the prohibition.

Then check the notice against the enforcement notice, activity by activity, and against the three statutory limits. Check the service, the effective date and whether special reasons are stated for an early date.

Lodge the enforcement notice appeal, pleading every available ground and not only ground (a). Where the facts support ground (b), (c) or (d), those are the grounds that preserve the compensation entitlement.

Write to the authority setting out why the stop notice goes beyond the enforcement notice, if it does, and invite withdrawal. Notify your insurers and your funder. And start the loss record, with photographs of the site as it stood when work stopped.

A retrospective application alongside the appeal is often the commercially sensible route even though success on ground (a) forfeits compensation, and a Planning Statement setting out the planning history and the policy case is the document the authority will read first.

This is general guidance, not legal advice. Enforcement and compensation both turn on exact dates and wording, so take advice from a solicitor and check the position with your local planning authority 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. Enter your postcode on PlanScope to see which reports a retrospective application is likely to need.