[2025] EWHC 2646 (Admin)

Section 57(1) of the TCPA 1990 provides that planning permission is required for the carrying out of any development of land. Section 55(1) of the TCPA 1990 defines two distinct types of “development”: the “carrying out of building, engineering, mining or other operations in, on, over or under land” and “the making of any material change in the use of any buildings or other land.”

Part VII of the TCPA 1990 contains the provisions for enforcement. Section 171(1)(a) provides that “carrying out development without the required planning permission” constitutes a breach of planning control. Section 172(1) provides that a local planning authority may issue an enforcement notice where it appears “(a) that there has been a breach of planning control”; and “(b) that it is expedient to issue the notice, having regard to the provisions of the development plan and to any other material considerations”.

Section 173(1) of the TCPA 1990 provides that an enforcement notice is to state “(a) the matters which appear to the local planning authority to constitute the breach of planning control” and “(b) the paragraph of section 171(A)(1) within which the breach falls”. Section 173(3) provides that “An enforcement notice shall specify the steps which the authority require to be taken, or the activities which the authority require to cease, in order to achieve, wholly or partly, any of the following purposes”; and section 173(4) provides that “Those purposes are – (a) remedying the breach by making any development comply with the terms (including conditions and limitations) of any planning permission which has been granted in respect of the land, by discontinuing any use of the land or by restoring the land to its condition before the breach took place; or (b) remedying any injury to amenity which has been caused by the breach.” Section 173(5) states that an enforcement notice “may, for example, require – (a) the alteration or removal of any buildings or works”