The Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015 (“the 2015 Order”) came into force on 15 April 2015. It consolidates and amends, in relation to England, the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 1995 (“the 1995 Order”) and some twenty or so subsequent amending instruments.
As in the case of the 1995 Order, the purpose of the 2015 Order is to grant planning permission for a range of predominantly minor developments, subject to certain limitations and conditions. (For instance, in some cases a developer is required to apply to the local planning authority (“LPA”) for a determination whether its prior approval is required for certain impacts before the development can commence.) Development granted planning permission in this way is known as “permitted development”. Its effect is that no application needs to be made to the LPA for planning permission.
Likewise, the 2015 Order also permits a LPA and the Secretary of State to direct that any or particular development permitted under the 2015 Order is not to apply in relation to a specified area. (Such directions are commonly referred to as “Article 4 directions”). The procedure in that respect is set out in Schedule 3 to the 2015 Order.
What will undoubtedly be seen as the most relevant provisions of the 2015 Order are those introducing a certain changes to the 1995 Order relating to permitted development rights. Again, space imposes a limitation but a number of these are summarised below.
(1) The date for the expiry of the time-limited permitted development right for larger home extensions is now 30 May 2019. (2) A new permitted development right has been included for the provision of click and collection facilities within the curtilage of a shop, and for increasing the size of loading bays. (3) There is now a new development right for the installation of solar PV panels, with a generating capacity of up to one megawatt, on the roofs of non-domestic buildings. (4) The previously time-limited development rights for extensions to non-domestic premises (offices, shops, industrial buildings and schools etc) have now been made permanent. (5) A number of new permitted development rights have been inserted in relation to changes of use and (6) a new permitted development right has been granted for the temporary use of buildings and land for commercial film making.
John Martin
