Understanding Planning Legislation: What is Development?

What constitutes development is determined in accordance with planning law and where appropriate, with regard to case law relevant to its interpretation. There are a number of definitions and provisions in the 1991 Order that relate to what constitutes development.

However, stated simply, Article 11 (1) of the 1991 Order (Appendix A) defines development as “the carrying out of building, engineering, mining or other operations in, on, over or under land, or the making of any material change in the use of any buildings or other land”.

Article 12 of the 1991 Order then states that planning permission is required for the carrying out any development of land. In addition to the planning permission needed for ‘development’ there are additional planning controls, on certain operations or uses of land which are not to be taken for the purposes of the Order to involve development of land, such as maintenance, improvement or other alteration of a building which affect only the interior of the building and do not materially affect the external appearance of the building, some very minor external works, such as television aerials, relating to:

• listed buildings;
• demolition in conservation areas;
• demolition in areas of townscape character/ village character;
• the presence of hazardous substances on, over or under land;
• protection of trees; and
• advertisements,

where consent or planning permission may be required.