Non-material amendments to planning permissions

Non-material amendments to an existing planning permission are normally small changes to an approved development proposal that have no impact on the overall context of the development scheme or its surroundings.

There is no formal process for approving these changes. So the current approach taken by local planning authorities in dealing with them varies across the country.

The consultation sets out our proposals to introduce an application process for making non-material changes to existing planning permissions. The proposals will:

• Provide a legal basis for making these changes offering greater certainty to local planning authorities and applicants on the ability to make them
• Provide a more responsive planning system that gives greater flexibility to applicants to make changes as the design and development process unfolds
• Provide certainty and transparency about the process and procedure by which non-material changes can be made to permissions
• Provide a more consistent approach between local planning authorities to determine these amendments.

A draft guide is available at Annex 1. This sets out the key features of the procedure and gives a practical guide to its use.

A draft partial Regulatory Impact Assessment is available in Annex 2. It assesses the likely impacts of the proposals.