Temporary permissions and what happens when they expire

A temporary planning permission is a permission with a date on it. Section 72 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 lets a council impose a condition requiring a use to stop, or a building to be removed, at the end of a stated period, and requiring the land to be put back as it was. When that date passes, the permission is spent. The use becomes unlawful unless a fresh permission is in place or the site reverts to whatever it was lawfully used for before.

That last point catches out operators. Running a pop-up kitchen or a temporary gym for three years does not gradually turn it into a permanent use. Section 57(2) of the same Act says that when a limited-period permission expires, the land may be used again for the purpose it was normally used for beforehand, and nothing more.

When a council reaches for a temporary permission

The Planning Practice Guidance on the use of planning conditions treats a temporary permission as the answer to a question the council cannot yet answer. Two situations come up repeatedly.

The first is a trial run. An officer is uneasy about noise from a late licence, or about parking demand from a new nursery, and wants to see what actually happens before granting something permanent. The second is where planning circumstances are expected to change. A site allocated for redevelopment in five years can carry an interim use now without prejudicing the allocation.

The guidance also discourages repeat temporary permissions. A second or third bite is hard to justify unless the trial really needs longer, and the guidance points councils towards granting permanently or refusing. That cuts both ways. It is a reason to expect a decision rather than an indefinite string of renewals, and a reason to make the trial period count.

A temporary permission is not appropriate simply because the building is temporary in construction. A permanent use in a portakabin is still a permanent use.

Reading the cessation condition

The condition usually does three things, and each carries a different consequence:

• it fixes the date on which the use must stop or the structure must come down
• it specifies what reinstatement is required, which can mean removing hardstanding, foundations and services, not just the building
• it sometimes requires a method statement or a restoration scheme to be approved beforehand

Read the reinstatement wording before you sign a lease. Restoring a field to agricultural condition after three years of hardstanding is a real cost, and it is a cost that falls on whoever holds the interest in the land when the date arrives.

Where the condition requires a restoration scheme to be submitted by a particular date, that is a separate obligation from the cessation itself. Missing it is a breach even if the use stops on time. Keeping the paper trail from the start is far easier than reconstructing it later, and our note on building a compliance file after permission is granted sets out what to keep.

Extending, renewing or making permanent

There are three routes, and they are not interchangeable.

1. A fresh application for the same development on a permanent basis. This is the cleanest route where the trial has gone well, and it lets you present the evidence from the temporary period as the main argument.
2. An application under section 73 to vary or remove the time-limited condition. This is quicker and the fee is lower, but the council reconsiders the condition afresh and can impose different conditions on the new permission.
3. A further temporary permission for a longer period. Expect resistance, for the reason set out above.

Timing is the practical problem. Start the process at least eight months before expiry for a minor application, longer if the council is running behind on determination periods. If the decision slips past the expiry date you are trading unlawfully while you wait, and the council is entitled to act. Where the delay is the council's, appealing non-determination is available once the statutory period has run, though it moves the decision out of the council's hands entirely.

The evidence the temporary period hands you

This is the part most operators waste. A trial permission is an evidence-gathering exercise, and the council has told you exactly what it is worried about by imposing the condition in the first place.

If the concern was noise, commission a short monitoring survey during the busiest period rather than relying on the absence of complaints. If it was parking, count the cars. If it was highway safety, get the accident record for the access from the highway authority. A Planning Statement that says "there have been no complaints" is weak. One that sets out measured data against the officer's original concern is hard to argue with.

Complaint records held by the council's environmental health team are obtainable, and they are worth asking for even when you expect them to be blank. A nil return from the regulator carries more weight than your own account of the same period.

If the use simply carries on

Continuing past the expiry date is a breach of condition. The council can serve a breach of condition notice under section 187A of the 1990 Act, which carries no right of appeal to the Planning Inspectorate, or an enforcement notice under section 172, which does. A breach of condition notice is the faster tool and councils use it precisely because it is hard to contest.

There is no comfortable immunity argument here. The Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 moved the immunity period for breaches of planning control in England to ten years, replacing the old four-year rules for operational development and changes of use to a single dwellinghouse. Check when that change took effect for your situation before relying on any date, because it applies by reference to when the breach occurred.

Beyond enforcement, an unlawful use is a problem on sale, on refinancing and on insurance. A buyer's solicitor will find the expired permission, and the answer "nobody has ever complained" does not survive a title report.

Meanwhile uses and how they are conditioned

Interim uses on sites awaiting redevelopment carry their own condition set: hours of operation, restriction to a named operator or a personal permission, restrictions on external lighting and amplified sound, and sometimes a requirement to remove everything within a set number of weeks of the main scheme starting. Personal permissions are worth watching, because they end when the named operator leaves and they cannot be assigned with the lease.

The commercial case for these arrangements, and the terms landlords typically ask for, is covered separately in our piece on meanwhile use and temporary permissions.

Designing for the expiry date

Treat the end date as a design input:

• put the expiry date and every intermediate deadline in the lease or licence, not only in a project file
• price reinstatement at the outset and hold it as a provision rather than discovering it in year three
• agree with your landlord who carries the restoration obligation
• set a calendar reminder at least twelve months out to decide between a fresh application, a section 73 or an exit
• gather the monitoring data throughout, not in the final month

One honest uncertainty: how much weight an inspector gives to an uneventful trial period varies. A clean record removes the council's stated reason for the time limit, but it does not answer objections that were never about the trial, such as the loss of an allocated employment site or harm to the setting of a listed building. Those arguments survive a quiet three years intact.

Enter your postcode on PlanScope to see which supporting documents your application is likely to need before the expiry date closes in.

PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval. This is general guidance, not legal advice. Check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it.