Part 1Preliminary
Citation, commencement, application and extent
article 1 1.—(1) This Order may be cited as the Town and Country Planning (Crown Development Applications) (Procedure and Written Representations) Order 2025 and comes into force on 1st May 2025.
(2) This Order extends to England and Wales, and applies in relation to England only.
(3) This Order applies to all land in England, but where land is the subject of a special development order this Order applies to that land only to such extent and subject to such modifications as may be specified in the special development order.
term special development order (4) In this article, a “special development order” means a development order made under section 59 of the 1990 Act(1) which is a special order applicable only to such land or descriptions of land as may be specified in the order.
Interpretation
article 2 2. In this Order—
term the 1990 act “the 1990 Act” means the Town and Country Planning Act 1990(2);
term the 2004 act “the 2004 Act”means the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004(3);
term the 2015 order “the 2015 Order” means the Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (England) Order 2015(4);
term site term access “access”, in relation to reserved matters, means the accessibility to and within the site, for vehicles, cycles and pedestrians in terms of the positioning and treatment of access and circulation routes and how these fit into the surrounding access network; where “site” means the site or part of the site in respect of which outline planning permission is granted or, as the case may be, in respect of which an application for such a permission has been made;
term appearance “appearance” means the aspects of a building or place within the development which determine the visual impression the building or place makes, including the external built form of the development, its architecture, materials, decoration, lighting, colour and texture;
term applicable representation period “applicable representation period” means the representation period which applies to a person making representations pursuant to any notice of, or information about, or consultation in relation to the application, and where more than one representation period applies, the last of those periods;
term building “building” includes any structure or erection, and any part of a building, as defined in this article, but does not include plant or machinery or any structure in the nature of plant or machinery;
term cil “CIL” means the community infrastructure levy as provided for in Part 11 of the Planning Act 2008(5);
term connected listed building application “connected listed building application” means an application made to the Secretary of State for listed building consent under the Listed Buildings Act which satisfies the requirements of section 293E(3) of the 1990 Act(6);
term crown development application “Crown development application” means an application made under section 293D of the 1990 Act(7);
term document “document” includes a photograph, map or plan;
term dwellinghouse “dwellinghouse” does not include a building containing one or more flats, or a flat contained within such a building;
term environmental statement term eia development term eia application “EIA application”, “EIA development” and “environmental statement” have the same meanings given in regulation 2(1) of the Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2017(8);
term electronic communication “electronic communication” has the meaning given in section 15(1) of the Electronic Communications Act 2000(9);
term erection “erection”, in relation to a building as defined in this article, includes extension, alteration or re-erection;
term infrastructure manager “infrastructure manager” means any person who in relation to relevant railway land—
is responsible for developing or maintaining the land, or
manages or uses the land, or permits the land to be used for the operation of a railway;
term irreplaceable habitat “irreplaceable habitat” has the meaning given by regulation 2 of the Biodiversity Gain Requirements (Irreplaceable Habitat) Regulations 2024(10);
term landscaping “landscaping”, in relation to a site or any part of a site for which outline planning permission has been granted or, as the case may be, in respect of which an application for such permission has been made, means the treatment of land (other than buildings) for the purpose of enhancing or protecting the amenities of the site and the area in which it is situated and includes—
screening by fences, walls or other means,
the planting of trees, hedges, shrubs or grass,
the formation of banks, terraces or other earthworks,
the laying out or provision of gardens, courts, squares, water features, sculpture or public art, and
the provision of other amenity features;
term last representation period “last representation period” means, of the representation periods which apply in relation to an application, the period which has the latest end date.
term layout “layout” means the way in which buildings, routes and open spaces within the development are provided, situated and orientated in relation to each other and to buildings and spaces outside the development;
term listed building “listed building” has the meaning given in section 1(5) of the Listed Buildings Act(11);
term listed building consent “listed building consent” has the meaning given in section 8(7) of the Listed Buildings Act;
term listed buildings act “Listed Buildings Act” means the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990(12);
term local planning register authority “local planning register authority” has the meaning given in article 40 of the 2015 Order(13);
term major development “major development” means development involving any one or more of the following—
the winning and working of minerals or the use of land for mineral-working deposits;
waste development;
the provision of dwellinghouses where—
the number of dwellinghouses to be provided is 10 or more, or
the development is to be carried out on a site having an area of 0.5 hectares or more and it is not known whether the development falls within sub-paragraph (c)(i);
the provision of a building or buildings where the floor space to be created by the development is 1,000 square metres or more;
development carried out on a site having an area of 1 hectare or more;
term non major development “non-major development” means development which is not major development;
term onsite habitat “onsite habitat” has the meaning given in paragraph 12 of Schedule 7A to the 1990 Act(14);
term outline planning permission “outline planning permission” means a planning permission for the erection of a building, which is granted subject to a condition requiring subsequent approval with respect to one or more reserved matters;
term public holiday “public holiday” means Christmas Day, Good Friday or a day which under the Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971(15) is a bank holiday in England;
term relevant local planning authority “relevant local planning authority” means the local planning authority to which an application would otherwise have been made had the applicant not chosen to make the application to the Secretary of State under section 293D, or as the case may be, section 293E of the 1990 Act;
term relevant railway land “relevant railway land” means land—
forming part of any operational railway, or
which is authorised to be used for the purposes of an operational railway under—
a planning permission granted or deemed to be granted,
a development consent granted by an order made under the Planning Act 2008(16), or
an Act of Parliament,
including any viaduct, tunnel, retaining wall, siding, shaft, bridge or other structure to be used for the purpose of an operational railway but excluding any car park, office, shop, hotel or other land which, by its nature or situation, is comparable with land in general rather than land which is used for the purpose of an operational railway;
term representation period “representation period” means—
in relation to a Crown development application, each of the periods within which representations can be made about the application referred to in articles 20(4), article 21(1)(b), and 22(2) or referred to in the requisite notice required to be served on or given to a person, published or displayed (as the case may be) in accordance with articles 9, 16, 17 and 18;
in relation to connected listed building application, each of the periods within which representations can be made about the application referred to in articles 36(2)(c), 39(2)(a), and 40(1) or referred to in the requisite notice required to be served on a person, published or displayed (as the case may be) in accordance with articles 30, 36 and 37;
term reserved matters “reserved matters” in relation to an outline planning permission, or an application for such permission, means any of the following matters in respect of which details have not been given in the application—
access;
appearance;
landscaping;
layout;
scale;
term scale “scale” means the height, width and length of each building proposed within the development in relation to its surroundings;
term by site display “by site display” means by the posting of the notice by firm fixture to some object, sited and displayed in such a way as to be easily visible and legible by members of the public;
term waste development “waste development” means any operational development designed to be used wholly or mainly for the purpose of, or material change of use to, treating, storing, processing or disposing of refuse or waste materials;
term working day “working day” means a day which is not a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday;
term written representations “written representations” includes supporting documents.
Electronic communications and service of documents
article 3 3.—(1) In this Order, and in relation to the use of electronic communications for any purpose of this Order which is capable of being carried out electronically—
article 3 1 a (a)term address the expression “address” includes any number or address used for the purpose of such communications, and
article 3 1 b (b)references to applications, notices, documents, drawings, certificates or other documents, or to copies of such things, include references to such documents or copies of them in electronic form.
term the recipient (2) Paragraphs (3) to (9) apply where an electronic communication is used by a person for the purpose of fulfilling any requirement in this Order to give or send any application, notice, other document or information to any other person (“the recipient”).
(3) A requirement is taken to be fulfilled where the application, notice or other document transmitted by the electronic communication is—
article 3 3 a (a)capable of being accessed by the recipient,
article 3 3 b (b)legible in all material respects, and
article 3 3 c (c)sufficiently permanent to be used for subsequent reference.
term legible in all material respects (4) In paragraph (3), “legible in all material respects” means that the information contained in the application, notice or document is available to the recipient to no lesser extent than it would be if sent or given by means of a document in printed form.
(5) Where the electronic communication is received by the recipient outside the recipient's business hours, it is taken to have been received on the next working day.
(6) A requirement in this Order that any application, notice or other document is in writing is fulfilled where the document transmitted by the electronic communication satisfies the criteria in paragraph (3).
(7) Where a Crown development application or a connected listed building application is made using electronic communications to transmit a form to the Secretary of State, the applicant is taken to have agreed—
article 3 7 a (a)to the use of such communications by the Secretary of State for the purposes of the application,
article 3 7 b (b)that the applicant's address for those purposes is the address incorporated into, or otherwise logically associated with, the application, and
article 3 7 c (c)that the applicant's deemed agreement under this paragraph subsists until the applicant gives notice in writing of the withdrawal of consent to the use of electronic communications under paragraph (8).
(8) Where a person is no longer willing to accept the use of electronic communications for any purpose of this Order which is capable of being effected electronically, the person must give notice in writing—
article 3 8 a (a)withdrawing any address notified to the Secretary of State for that purpose, or
article 3 8 b (b)revoking any agreement entered into (or deemed to have been entered into) with the Secretary of State for that purpose,
and such withdrawal or revocation takes effect on a date specified by the person in the notice but not less than 7 days after the date on which the notice is given.
(9) A requirement in this Order to send more than one copy of an application or other document may be complied with when using electronic communications by sending a single copy of the application or other document.
Amendments have been made to section 59 which are not relevant to this Order.
Section 293E was inserted by section 109(2) of the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023.
Section 293D was inserted by section 109(2) of the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023.
S.I. 2017/571. Amendments have been made to regulation 2(1) that are not relevant to this Order.
2000 c. 7. Section 15(1) was amended by paragraph 158 of Schedule 17 of the Communications Act 2013.
2013 c. 24. Section 1(5) was amended by paragraph 8(2) of Schedule 17 to the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013.
There are amendments to article 40 that are not relevant to this Order.
Schedule 7A was inserted by section 147(3) of, and paragraph 2 of Schedule 14 to, the Environment Act 2021 (c. 30). Paragraph 12(1) of Schedule 7A was amended by section 135(d) of the Levelling-up Regeneration Act 2023.