TRW & Co · Real Estate & Construction
Planning and Development Solicitors in London
Planning solicitors in London help landowners, developers and investors secure, protect and challenge planning permission in England. The work covers consent strategy, section 106 and CIL, appeals, enforcement and judicial review. With a rewritten National Planning Policy Framework in August 2026 and the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 coming into force in stages, the legal detail now drives value.
Key pointA permission is only bankable once its conditions, section 106 obligations and CIL position are workable and the six-week challenge window has passed, so land and funding documents should be built around those points from the first draft.
At a glance
New NPPF in force
The rewritten National Planning Policy Framework was published on 17 August 2026, and its decision-making policies apply immediately to planning decisions in England.
2025 Act phasing in
The Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 received Royal Assent on 18 December 2025; committee delegation and the Nature Restoration Fund depend on later regulations.
Six-week challenge window
Judicial review of a planning decision and section 288 challenges to appeal decisions must be brought within six weeks, so land and funding timetables should allow for it.
Appeal within six months
Most appeals against refusal or conditions must reach the Planning Inspectorate within six months, falling to 28 days in some cases involving an enforcement notice.
Ten per cent biodiversity gain
Most permissions in England carry a condition requiring at least 10% biodiversity net gain, with significant onsite habitat secured for at least 30 years.
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What planning solicitors in London do
Planning solicitors in London advise landowners, developers, investors, lenders and occupiers on getting permission to build or change the use of land, on the agreements and levies that come with that permission, and on challenging or defending planning decisions. In England the starting point is simple: most development needs planning permission, and the terms of that permission decide what a site is worth.
Planning becomes a legal question well before an application is lodged, which is why planning solicitors in London are often instructed at the land deal stage. The choice of consent route, the drafting of conditions, the size of a section 106 package and the risk of a challenge by a neighbour or campaign group all affect value, programme and financing. A buyer who prices a site on an assumed consent, without testing those points, is taking a risk the seller has usually already measured.
Typical matters include site acquisitions conditional on planning, option and promotion agreements, applications for major residential and mixed-use schemes, section 106 and Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) negotiations, appeals to the Planning Inspectorate, enforcement, and judicial reviews of grants or refusals. We run this work alongside our real estate investment and construction teams, so that consent, land and build contracts line up.
The legal and policy framework in England
Planning in England is a statutory system. Courts will not substitute their own view of a scheme's merits, but they will quash a decision made on a legal error. That makes the drafting of reports, conditions and agreements as important as the design itself.
Primary legislation
The Town and Country Planning Act 1990 is the core statute. It requires permission for "development", sets the rules for applications and conditions, allows variation of conditions under section 73, creates section 106 planning obligations, gives the right of appeal and contains the enforcement code. Permissions are time-limited, so implementation strategy matters on slower schemes.
The Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 makes the system plan-led: decisions must follow the development plan unless material considerations indicate otherwise. Nationally significant infrastructure projects (large energy, transport, water and waste schemes) sit outside this regime and need a development consent order under the Planning Act 2008.
Recent reform: the 2023 and 2025 Acts
The Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 changed plan-making, enforcement and several procedural rules. The Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 received Royal Assent on 18 December 2025. It introduces a national scheme of delegation for planning committees, a Nature Restoration Fund run by Natural England as an alternative way to meet certain environmental obligations, streamlined procedures for infrastructure consents and changes to compulsory purchase.
Many provisions of the 2025 Act depend on regulations and guidance, and they are being brought into force in stages. Before relying on any of them for a specific site, check the commencement position on the date of the application or decision.
National and London policy
The government published a substantially rewritten National Planning Policy Framework on 17 August 2026. Its decision-making policies apply immediately, and local plan policies that are materially inconsistent with them should be given very limited weight. It also restates the presumption in favour of sustainable development and revises density expectations near well-connected stations.
In London the development plan also includes the London Plan prepared by the Mayor. Applications of potential strategic importance are referred to the Mayor, who can direct refusal or take over the application. Borough local plans, area action plans and neighbourhood plans complete the picture.
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own planning legislation and national policy, so the analysis in this page applies to England unless stated otherwise.
Choosing the right consent route
The quickest route is not always the most valuable one. Experienced planning solicitors in London start by asking what the client needs the consent to do: support a land price, unlock funding, satisfy a pre-let tenant or simply permit a change of use with the least exposure to challenge.
| Route | Best used for | Key legal points |
|---|---|---|
| Full planning permission | Fixed designs ready to build | Detailed conditions; time limit for starting; section 106 usually signed before the decision issues |
| Outline permission plus reserved matters | Land promotion and phased schemes | Parameters fixed at outline; reserved matters must stay within them; deadlines for submitting reserved matters |
| Section 73 application | Changing conditions on an existing permission | Creates a new permission; the original section 106 often needs a deed of variation |
| Permitted development and prior approval | Certain changes of use and small works | Strict conditions and limitations; Article 4 directions can remove the rights locally |
| Lawful development certificate | Confirming existing use or works are lawful | Evidence-led; useful before purchase or refinancing |
| Development consent order | Nationally significant infrastructure | Planning Act 2008 process; examination by the Planning Inspectorate; decision by the Secretary of State |
Conditions, section 106 and CIL
Conditions control how a permission is implemented. Pre-commencement conditions can block a start on site, so they should be agreed in draft and limited to what genuinely needs approval before works begin.
Section 106 agreements bind the land, not just the applicant. They typically cover affordable housing, highways works, financial contributions and, increasingly, biodiversity and carbon offset obligations. Mortgagee consent clauses, release on disposal, and protection for future plot purchasers and their lenders need careful drafting. The government's planning obligations guidance sets out the statutory tests an obligation must meet.
CIL is a fixed, non-negotiable charge on new floorspace under the Community Infrastructure Levy Regulations 2010. In London there is both borough CIL and a Mayoral CIL. Liability, reliefs and the procedural notices that must be served before commencement are unforgiving, and a missed form can cost a relief that would otherwise have applied.
Biodiversity net gain
Under Schedule 7A to the 1990 Act, most permissions in England are subject to a condition requiring at least a 10% gain in biodiversity value. The regime applies to applications made from 12 February 2024, with significant onsite habitat secured for at least 30 years. Regulations made in 2026 added exemptions, including for sites of 0.2 hectares or less, for applications made from 6 August 2026. The government's biodiversity net gain guidance explains the hierarchy of onsite gains, offsite gains and statutory credits.
A planning permission is only as valuable as the conditions, obligations and challenge risk that come with it.
From site appraisal to implementation: the process
Most major schemes follow a broadly similar legal path, and planning solicitors in London will usually map it against the land and funding timetable. The order matters: decisions taken at the appraisal stage drive what can be negotiated later.
- Site and title appraisal. Review the planning history, the development plan, title covenants, rights of light, highways and any existing section 106 obligations. Identify what the land deal needs the consent to deliver.
- Land agreement. Agree an option, conditional contract or promotion agreement that defines a "satisfactory planning permission", sets appeal obligations and allocates the risk of judicial review.
- Pre-application engagement. Use the local planning authority's pre-application service and, for strategic London schemes, the Mayor's process. Consider a planning performance agreement to fix timetables and resources.
- Application and validation. Submit a complete application, including environmental, heritage, transport, viability and fire safety material where required. Validation problems are a common source of delay.
- Section 106 negotiation. Run the agreement in parallel with determination so that the decision notice can issue promptly after a resolution to grant.
- Decision, appeal or challenge. If refused or not decided in time, consider an appeal. If granted, monitor the judicial review window before relying on the consent for funding or land payments.
- Discharge and implementation. Discharge pre-commencement conditions, serve the CIL notices and make a lawful start in time to keep the permission alive.
Appeals and legal challenges
Appeals go to the Planning Inspectorate. According to GOV.UK guidance, the general deadline for appealing a refusal or conditions is six months from the decision letter, but it falls to 28 days in some cases where an enforcement notice has been served. An appeal for non-determination can be made after eight weeks, or 13 weeks for major development, unless a longer period has been agreed.
Claims for judicial review of a planning decision must be brought within six weeks. Statutory challenges to appeal decisions under section 288 of the 1990 Act have the same short window. These deadlines are rarely extended, so the decision to challenge must be made quickly. Our public law and judicial review team handles these claims; where advocacy in the higher courts is required, we instruct specialist counsel.
Land contracts often treat a permission as "satisfactory" only once the challenge period has expired without a claim. Funders take the same view. Build the six-week window, and the possible life of a claim if one is issued, into completion dates and longstop dates from the outset.
Documents and evidence to assemble
A planning case is won or lost on its paper. When we act as planning solicitors in London for a developer or landowner, we expect to see the following early:
- Title documents, plans and any existing planning permissions, section 106 agreements and CIL liability notices for the site.
- The planning history, including refusals, appeal decisions and enforcement notices on the site and neighbouring land.
- Development plan extracts, supplementary planning documents and any emerging local plan or London Plan policy relevant to the use.
- Technical reports: transport, heritage, daylight and sunlight, flood risk, ecology and biodiversity metric, air quality and, for tall residential buildings, the fire statement.
- Viability evidence where affordable housing or contributions will be negotiated.
- Option, promotion or conditional contract documents defining what consent is needed and who bears the cost of appeals and challenges.
- Correspondence and meeting notes with the planning authority, which often matter in any later challenge.
Risks and common mistakes
Most planning disputes start with a drafting or timing error rather than a policy disagreement. These are the problems we see most often.
Letting a permission expire without a lawful start
Permissions must be implemented within their time limit, and a start only counts if pre-commencement conditions have been discharged. Works carried out in breach of a condition that goes to the heart of the permission may not be a lawful implementation. On slower schemes, plan a defensible start well before expiry, document it carefully and consider applying for a lawful development certificate to confirm that the permission has been kept alive. Buyers and lenders will ask for this evidence, and a weak start can wipe out the value of a site that was priced on consent.
Section 106 obligations that bind the wrong people
An agreement that does not release owners after disposal, or that binds individual home buyers and their mortgage lenders to estate-wide obligations, can make units hard to sell or finance. Mortgagee protection clauses, release on disposal and clear trigger points (for example, "not to occupy more than a set number of units until") avoid this. Check that every party with an interest in the land at the time of signing has joined in, or the obligation may not bind it.
Missing CIL procedural steps
CIL reliefs, including social housing relief and exemptions for self-build, often depend on serving the right forms before commencement. If works start without a valid commencement notice, the authority can impose surcharges and may demand the full amount immediately. Because CIL bites on the land, buyers inherit any unpaid liability. Build a CIL checklist into the construction programme and make sure the contractor knows that "commencement" for CIL purposes can be triggered by minor works.
Underestimating judicial review risk
Well-organised objectors can and do bring claims, and even an unsuccessful claim can delay funding and land payments for months. Risks rise where the officer's report misstates policy, where environmental assessment screening is thin, or where the decision departs from the development plan without clear reasons. A pre-decision legal review of the committee report and draft decision notice is a modest cost against that risk, and the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 reforms do not remove it for ordinary planning applications.
Ignoring building safety at planning stage
For relevant residential buildings of 18 metres or more, or seven or more storeys, a fire statement is required at the planning stage, and the design must also satisfy later building control gateways run by the Building Safety Regulator. Designs approved at planning but unworkable at building control lead to section 73 applications and redesign. Our building safety lawyers work with planning advisers to keep the two regimes consistent from the start.
Planning enforcement and regularisation
Local planning authorities can serve planning contravention notices, enforcement notices, breach of condition notices and stop notices, and can seek injunctions in serious cases. Unauthorised works to listed buildings are a criminal offence. The Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 strengthened enforcement powers and lengthened the period after which many breaches become immune from action, so older assumptions about immunity need re-checking.
The right response depends on the facts. Options include a retrospective application, a lawful development certificate based on evidence of long use, an appeal against an enforcement notice on legal or planning grounds, or negotiated compliance. Appeal deadlines against enforcement notices are short and fixed by the date the notice takes effect, so instructions should be given as soon as a notice arrives.
Buyers should treat enforcement history as a title issue, and planning solicitors in London will check it as part of due diligence. A breach on a site you buy becomes your problem, and indemnity insurance is often unavailable once the authority is aware of it.
Cross-border investors and London development
A significant share of London development finance and land ownership is held through overseas structures. Planning law itself does not discriminate by nationality, but the legal plumbing around a planning-led deal does.
Overseas companies that buy or hold UK land must be registered on the Register of Overseas Entities under Part 1 of the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022 before HM Land Registry will register their dealings. Section 106 agreements also need the landowner to sign, so an unregistered overseas owner can hold up the planning decision itself.
For investors from Bangladesh, the Gulf, Singapore or China, we coordinate source-of-funds evidence, corporate authorisations and powers of attorney so that execution formalities do not delay a planning agreement. Where a joint venture partner or lender is governed by foreign law, we work with local counsel and align the planning risk allocation with the JV and finance documents. Our Bangladesh property team handles the reverse flow, for UK-based clients developing land in Bangladesh.
How TRW & Co's planning solicitors in London help
We act for landowners, developers, investors, lenders and occupiers. Our planning solicitors in London work alongside planning consultants, architects and viability advisers rather than replacing them, and we focus on the legal points that drive value and risk.
Land and promotion agreements
Options, conditional contracts and promotion agreements that define a satisfactory permission, allocate appeal and challenge risk, and set fair price mechanisms. We align these with the planning strategy from day one.
Section 106 and CIL
Negotiating and drafting section 106 agreements and deeds of variation, reviewing CIL liability and reliefs, and building the procedural notices into the programme so that nothing is lost on commencement.
Applications and appeals
Legal review of applications, committee reports and draft decision notices, and management of appeals to the Planning Inspectorate, including written representations, hearings and inquiries with specialist counsel where needed.
Challenges and defence
Bringing or defending judicial reviews and section 288 challenges within the short time limits, and advising funders on whether a consent is safe to rely on.
Enforcement and regularisation
Responding to contravention and enforcement notices, assembling evidence for lawful development certificates and negotiating practical compliance with the authority.
Transactions with planning risk
Due diligence on planning history, conditions and obligations for buyers and lenders, with clear reporting on what a permission does and does not allow.
See our full list of practices, or read our guide to the Planning and Infrastructure Act and our note on data centre planning and power. Our infrastructure team handles development consent orders.
Checklist for decision-makers
Before committing money to a planning-led project, the questions below are the ones planning solicitors in London will ask, and the ones a funder or buyer will ask later.
- What exactly does the consent need to permit for the land price, the funding and any pre-let to work?
- Is the scheme consistent with the current development plan and the August 2026 National Planning Policy Framework?
- Who carries the cost and delay risk of a refusal, an appeal and a judicial review?
- Have biodiversity net gain, fire safety and heritage requirements been tested at the design stage?
- Does the draft section 106 bind only those who should be bound, with release and mortgagee protection?
- Is the CIL position confirmed, with reliefs claimed and notices served before commencement?
- Is there a plan for a lawful start before the permission expires?
- If any party is overseas, is it registered and are its signing formalities ready?
To discuss a site or a decision, contact our London office at Holborn Gate, 330 High Holborn, London WC1V 7QH, or email info@trw.co.
Frequently asked questions
01When do I need planning solicitors in London rather than just a planning consultant?
Planning consultants lead on policy and the application itself. You need a solicitor when the legal documents carry value or risk: buying land subject to planning, negotiating a section 106 agreement, checking CIL liability, appealing, responding to enforcement or bringing or defending a judicial review. Most major schemes use both, with the solicitor reviewing the committee report, conditions and agreement before the decision issues so that the permission is workable and robust. Early involvement is cheaper than fixing a defective agreement or condition after the event.
02How long does a planning permission last?
A permission is granted subject to a time limit for starting development, which is usually set in a condition on the decision notice. Outline permissions have separate deadlines for submitting reserved matters and for starting. If the permission is not lawfully implemented in time, it lapses and a new application is needed under whatever policy then applies. A lawful start generally requires pre-commencement conditions to have been discharged, so plan the start well before expiry and keep evidence of the works carried out.
03What is a section 106 agreement and can it be changed?
A section 106 agreement is a planning obligation under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 that binds the land. It usually secures affordable housing, contributions and infrastructure works. Obligations can be changed by agreement through a deed of variation, or by an application to the local planning authority to modify or discharge them, with a right of appeal in some cases. Viability changes, a section 73 application or a change of tenure mix are the most common reasons for revisiting an agreement.
04Can neighbours challenge a planning permission?
Yes. Anyone with sufficient interest can apply for judicial review of a grant of planning permission, normally within six weeks of the decision. The court does not re-decide the merits; it looks for legal errors such as misinterpreting policy, failing to consider a material consideration or procedural unfairness. If the claim succeeds the permission is usually quashed and the authority must decide again. Developers can reduce risk by having the officer report and draft decision reviewed before the decision is issued.
05What changed with the August 2026 National Planning Policy Framework?
The government published a substantially rewritten framework on 17 August 2026. It separates plan-making policies from decision-making policies, replaces the old tilted balance with a permanent presumption in favour of sustainable development, revises density expectations near well-connected stations and sets new timescales for local plans. Decision-making policies took effect immediately, and inconsistent local policies should be given very limited weight. Pending applications should be checked against the new text.
06Does biodiversity net gain apply to my site?
Most planning permissions in England granted on applications made from 12 February 2024 are subject to a condition requiring at least a 10% gain in biodiversity value. There are exemptions, including householder development, permitted development, de minimis works and, for applications made from 6 August 2026, sites of 0.2 hectares or less without priority habitat impact. Gains can be delivered on site, off site or, as a last resort, through statutory credits, and significant onsite gains must be secured for at least 30 years.
07Do the rules differ in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland?
Yes. Planning is devolved. Scotland has the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997 and its own national planning framework, Wales has the Planning (Wales) Act 2015 and its own national policy, and Northern Ireland has the Planning Act (Northern Ireland) 2011. Biodiversity net gain under Schedule 7A applies in England. Investors with UK-wide portfolios need jurisdiction-specific advice, and we coordinate with local advisers where a site is outside England.
Sources and official materials
- Town and Country Planning Act 1990 — Core planning statute: permission, conditions, section 106, appeals, enforcement
- Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 — Committee delegation, Nature Restoration Fund and infrastructure reforms
- National Planning Policy Framework — National planning policy for England, rewritten August 2026
- Biodiversity net gain — Mandatory 10% gain, exemptions and the gain hierarchy
- Appeal a planning decision — Planning Inspectorate appeal routes and deadlines
- Planning obligations guidance — Section 106 tests and practice
- Community Infrastructure Levy guidance — CIL liability, reliefs and procedures
- Planning Act 2008 — Development consent for nationally significant infrastructure
General information only, current as at 21 October 2026. It is not legal advice and does not create a solicitor–client relationship. It reflects the law of England and Wales unless stated otherwise; Scotland and Northern Ireland have separate legal systems, and the law changes frequently. Check current official sources and take advice on the facts of your matter.