KB--2025-001314 - [2025] EWHC 2809 (KB)

Section 37(1) of the Senior Courts Act 1981 provides that “The High Court may by order (whether interlocutory or final) grant an injunction or appoint a receiver in all cases in which it appears to the court to be just and convenient to do so”.

The underlying cause of action in a claim brought under s.187B of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (“the Act”)is a breach of planning control.

Section 187B (1) of the Act provides that: “Where a local planning authority consider it necessary or expedient for any actual or apprehended breach of planning control to be restrained by injunction, they may apply to the court for an injunction, whether or not they have exercised or are proposing to exercise any of their other powers under this Part”.

Section 187B (2) provides that “On an application under subsection (1) the court may grant such an injunction as the court thinks appropriate for the purpose of restraining the breach”.

The Town and Country Planning Act 1990 at section 55(1) 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.”

Section 55(1A) of the Act provides that “For the purposes of this Act “building operations” includes — (a) demolition of buildings; (b) rebuilding; (c) structural alterations of or additions to buildings; and (d) other operations normally undertaken by a person carrying on business as a builder”.

Section 55(2) of the Act sets out which operations or uses of land shall not be taken to involve development of land. Those include, as per section 55(2)(a), “the carrying out for the maintenance, improvement or other alteration of any building of works which—(i) affect only the interior of the building, or (ii) do not materially affect the external appearance of the building, …”.

Section 55(2)(e) of the Act provides that “the use of any land for the purposes of agriculture or forestry (including afforestation) and the use for any of those purposes of any building occupied together with land so used” does not constitute development of land.

Section 336(1) defines “agriculture” as including “horticulture, fruit growing, seed growing, dairy farming, the breeding and keeping of livestock (including any creature kept for the production of food, wool, skins or fur, or for the purpose of its use in the farming of land), the use of land as grazing land, meadow land, osier land, market gardens and nursery grounds, and the use of land for woodlands where that use is ancillary to the farming of land for other agricultural purposes, and “agricultural” shall be construed accordingly”.

Section 57(1) of the Act provides that “planning permission is required for the carrying out of any development of land”.

Section 171A of the Act provides that “carrying out development without the required planning permission” is a breach of planning control.

For the benefit of the Defendants, I set out that the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015 (“the GPDO”) contains permitted development rights where planning permission has been granted by the GPDO (see sections 58(1) and 60(1) of the Act). Those are contained in Schedule Two of the GPDO.

Part 6 of Schedule Two relates to agricultural and forestry. Class B relates to agricultural development on units of less than 5 hectares. Class B authorises “The carrying out on agricultural land comprised in an agricultural unit, of not less than 0.4 but less than 5 hectares in area, of development consisting of…(a) the extension or alteration of an agricultural building (e) the provision of a hard surface…where the development is reasonably necessary for the purposes of agriculture within the unit”.

Paragraph B.1 sets out the circumstances in which development is not permitted by Class B. Those include where “the external appearance of the premises would be materially affected” (paragraph B.1(b)). Paragraph B.2(a) is also clear that “Development is not permitted by Class B (a) if – (a) the height of any building would be increased…”.

Paragraph B.5 imposes, as a condition on that grant of planning permission, a requirement that “Where development is permitted by Class B(a), within 7 days of the date on which the development is substantially completed, the developer must notify the local planning authority in writing of that fact”.