A worked non-material amendment request

A non material amendment under section 96A of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 is the quickest way to correct or adjust an approved scheme, and it is the route most often used wrongly. The council has 28 days to decide, the fee is small, there is no publicity and no consultation, and there is no right of appeal if the answer is no. That last point is what makes the drafting worth getting right first time.

There is no statutory definition of "non material". The council forms a judgement in the context of the permission it granted, and it must consider the change together with any earlier changes to the same permission, so a fourth small amendment is judged against the cumulative position rather than on its own.

What section 96A allows

Section 96A lets the local planning authority amend an existing permission by making a non material change to it. The permission itself is amended, and you receive a notice confirming the change and the revised drawing numbers. You do not get a new permission.

Three limits matter in practice.

The description of development cannot be changed. If the approved description says "erection of three dwellings", a section 96A cannot make it four, however small the fourth unit is.

The time limit for implementation cannot be extended. That has been the position since the temporary extension powers lapsed, so a permission running out of time needs a fresh application rather than an amendment.

The application site boundary cannot be enlarged. A change that takes in land outside the original red line is a new application, not an amendment, because the permission only ever related to the land in the description.

Conditions can be altered as part of the change, including the approved plans condition, which is the mechanism by which your revised drawings become the approved ones.

The test the council applies

Officers ask whether the change is so small that it makes no difference to the planning judgement they already made. The factors that decide it are consistent even though the conclusion varies.

• Whether the change is visible from any public vantage point or from a neighbouring window.
• Whether it affects any interest that generated a condition, a consultee response or an objection first time round.
• Whether anyone who commented on the original application would want to comment on this.
• Whether the change touches a designated heritage asset, a protected tree, a flood risk mitigation measure or an ecological mitigation measure.
• Whether floorspace, footprint, height or the number of units changes at all.
• The cumulative effect of this change with earlier amendments to the same permission.

That third bullet is the practical test to apply yourself before submitting. If a neighbour would be annoyed to discover the change had been approved without their knowing, the application is probably in the wrong lane.

Where section 73 is the right route instead

Section 73 is an application to vary or remove a condition, and it produces a new permission that sits alongside the original one. It is subject to the same publicity and consultation as any application, carries a fee on the usual scale, and can be appealed.

The Court of Appeal's decision in Finney v Welsh Ministers (2019) is the reason for that last row: a condition cannot be varied under section 73 in a way that conflicts with the description of the development permitted. So where the description contains a dimension, the description is the constraint, not the condition.

An illustrative worked request for a window alteration

This example is illustrative. Take a permission for a two storey side extension where, during construction, the client wants the first floor bathroom window enlarged and obscure glazed, and the ground floor kitchen window moved 600mm away from the party boundary to clear a new steel post.

The submission is four short documents.

1. A covering letter identifying the permission by its reference and date, stating that the application is made under section 96A, and setting out the changes in a numbered schedule.
2. A change schedule in table form: for each change, the drawing superseded, the replacement drawing number and revision, and a one line description of what has altered.
3. Revised drawings, clouded and annotated, at the same scale as the approved set.
4. A short assessment, half a page, addressing why each change is non material.

The assessment for this example runs along these lines. The bathroom window is on the flank elevation, at first floor, facing the neighbour's blank gable; the opening increases by 300mm in width, obscure glazing is proposed where clear glazing was approved, so the privacy position improves rather than worsens. The kitchen window moves 600mm within the same elevation, with no change to size, head height or cill height, and the elevation as a whole is unchanged in composition. No condition other than the approved plans condition is affected. Floorspace, footprint, height, materials and the number of units are unchanged. There is no heritage designation, no protected tree and no flood risk mitigation measure involved.

Then state plainly that the description of development is unaffected, and list the earlier amendments to the permission, with none in this case.

That is the whole submission. Officers deal with dozens of these, and a request that answers the test in half a page is decided faster than one buried in a design narrative. Where a change does need fuller justification, the reasoning belongs in a Planning Statement accompanying a section 73 application instead.

Fee, timescale and the absence of an appeal

The fee is a flat amount set by the Fees Regulations, lower for development consisting of a dwellinghouse than for other development, and indexed annually, so take the current figure from the council's fee page.

The decision period is 28 days from a valid application. Councils generally hold to it because the applications are short, though a request submitted in the same week as a committee cycle can slip.

There is no appeal against refusal of a section 96A application. If it is refused, your options are to resubmit with a smaller change, to apply under section 73, or to make a fresh application. That asymmetry is worth explaining to a client before you submit, because the downside of aiming too high is a month lost rather than a decision you can challenge. Where a refusal does carry appeal rights, the drafting task is a different one, as our note on the appeal statement of case for a householder refusal sets out.

Listed buildings are the common trap. A change to a listed building that is non material for planning purposes may still need listed building consent in its own right, and section 96A does not touch that consent. The same applies to conservation area works and to anything covered by a separate consent, which is a point we look at in Heritage Statement for a listed shopfront alteration.

Updating the approved drawings afterwards

When the notice arrives, do three things before the file closes.

Consolidate the drawing register so there is one list showing every approved drawing and revision, with superseded numbers struck through. Contractors work from the latest set they were sent, and a site that builds to a superseded revision creates an unauthorised development problem nobody notices until the completion certificate.

Send the notice and the revised drawings to building control and, where relevant, to the warranty provider, because the planning amendment does not reach them automatically.

Keep the change schedule. If a second amendment follows, the council will consider the cumulative effect, and your own schedule is the record that shows what has already been agreed.

Browse the PlanScope report index to see which supporting documents a variation or fresh application is likely to need. 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 rather than legal advice, so check the right route for a particular change with your local planning authority before applying.