Temporary stop notices for listed buildings

A temporary stop notice for a listed building requires work to stop immediately and can last up to 56 days. It gives a local planning authority breathing space to investigate unauthorised works and decide what to do next, without having to go straight to an injunction. For anyone who reviews heritage documents or advises on listed buildings, the practical effect is that a site can go from active to frozen in a single afternoon.

The power sits in the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990, inserted by the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023. As at 13 October 2026, check the current text of the 1990 Act and the relevant commencement regulations on legislation.gov.uk before advising on it, because the listed building enforcement provisions of the 2023 Act were brought into force in stages.

What the notice does

It prohibits specified works to a listed building, with effect from the moment it is served and displayed. There is no grace period and no requirement for the authority to prove harm first. The notice identifies the building, describes the works to be stopped, states the date it takes effect and the date it ceases to have effect, and sets out the reasons.

Its purpose is procedural rather than final. During the period the notice runs, the authority can inspect, take advice, consider whether listed building consent could be granted retrospectively, and decide whether to serve a listed building enforcement notice, prosecute, or take no further action.

Breaching the notice is an offence. The sanction is what gives a short-duration notice its force, and it applies to the person carrying out the works as well as to those causing them.

There is no statutory appeal against the notice itself. A challenge runs by judicial review, which in a 56 day window is rarely a realistic route. The effective response is to engage with the authority during the period rather than to litigate.

How it differs from the planning temporary stop notice

The difference that matters most is not procedural. Unauthorised works to a listed building are a criminal offence in themselves, which is not true of most breaches of planning control. That changes the advice you give a client on day one.

The offences sitting behind it

Section 9 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 makes it an offence to execute or cause to be executed works for the demolition, alteration or extension of a listed building in a manner affecting its character as a building of special architectural or historic interest, without listed building consent. The offence is triable either way, and imprisonment is available on conviction on indictment.

Two further points shape the risk.

There is no time limit for listed building enforcement. Unlike planning enforcement, where limitation periods apply, an authority can serve a listed building enforcement notice under section 38 of the 1990 Act however long ago the works were carried out. Works done by a previous owner in 1997 remain enforceable against the building today.

And the authority can seek an injunction under section 44A of the 1990 Act where it considers that necessary to restrain an actual or apprehended contravention. A temporary stop notice is often the first and less costly step towards the same outcome.

The urgent works defence, and its limits

Section 9 provides a defence where works were urgently necessary in the interests of safety or health, or for the preservation of the building, provided three conditions are met. The works had to be limited to the minimum measures immediately necessary, it had to be the case that consent could not reasonably have been obtained first, and written notice justifying the works had to be given to the local planning authority as soon as reasonably practicable.

Each limb is tested, and the defence fails more often on the second and third than on the first. A contractor who propped a failing wall over a weekend and told nobody for a fortnight has lost the defence on notification even if the propping was correct.

The practical advice is uncomfortable and worth giving anyway. Where emergency works are unavoidable, photograph everything before and during, record the structural advice that justified the intervention, keep the scope to the minimum, and send written notice to the conservation officer the same day. A single email with photographs attached is usually enough to preserve the position.

What a reviewer is usually asked to do

When a notice lands, the professional who gets the call is normally asked for one of four things, and they are not the same job.

An assessment of what has been lost. This means comparing the building as it now stands against the evidence of its previous state, which requires archival material, earlier photographs, listing descriptions and often fabric analysis. Where the works have already removed evidence, say so rather than reconstructing a narrative.

A statement of significance and an assessment of harm, to support either a retrospective consent application or a negotiated remediation scheme. Historic England guidance on statements of heritage significance is the usual framework, and the document feeds a Heritage Statement for the application that follows.

A recording exercise, where works have exposed fabric that is about to be covered again or where remediation will itself remove evidence. Historic Building Recording to the appropriate Historic England level is the standard product, and the level has to be agreed with the conservation officer rather than chosen unilaterally.

A remediation specification, setting out how the works can be reversed or made good. This is the one that most often decides whether a prosecution proceeds, and it needs to be deliverable rather than aspirational.

Be clear in writing about which of the four you have been engaged for. Scope creep in this area carries liability, because a document headed as an assessment of harm that also recommends remediation may be read as a specification by someone else later.

Record keeping while a notice runs

1. Establish the date and time of service and display, and get a copy of the notice itself rather than a description of it.
2. Record the state of the building at the moment work stopped, with dated photographs and a measured note where fabric is exposed.
3. Secure the site so that further deterioration cannot be attributed to the period of the notice.
4. Identify what fabric has been removed and where it is. Salvaged material often decides whether reinstatement is possible.
5. Write to the authority early, setting out what happened, what has stopped and what you propose. Authorities have discretion, and the quality of the first letter affects how they use it.

Point four is routinely neglected. Lime-washed boards in a skip are evidence and they are also the material you will need in three months. Getting them off site and stored, rather than destroyed, is the single most useful practical step available in the first 48 hours.

The honest uncertainty here is how differently authorities use the power. It is relatively new, enforcement practice varies, and a notice is a discretionary tool rather than an automatic response to unauthorised works. Do not advise a client that a notice is unlikely because their council has not served one before.

As at 13 October 2026, verify the current statutory wording, the duration and the commencement position before relying on any of this, in the same way you would with commencement notices under the levy amendment regulations or any other staged reform. Reform items are tracked on the PlanScope planning law timeline. This is general guidance, not legal advice, so take advice from a solicitor where a criminal offence may be in issue.

PlanScope drafts heritage documents structured to national policy and flags where evidence is missing, and drafts can be sent for sign-off through the professional directory. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.