The value of advice
A question we’re often asked when talking to people about what a planning consultant does is why would you need one and what do you do. One of the key aspects of any planning consultants’ job is to give advice to their clients on what they can and can’t do with their land, building, or permission. We are often asked to advise people on how to safeguard a consent that they have been granted. Almost every planning permission that is granted comes with a condition limiting its life, with the normal period for a full planning permission in Wales being 5 years. This condition requires that you make a start on a development within that period, and if you do so properly then you have made a so called ‘material start’ and so the permission will not expire.
The key point here is making a proper start. Firstly, any work such as building an access road, putting in foundations, or starting a building, must be done exactly as per the permission to ‘count’ as a proper start. Secondly, you must comply with all conditions on the permission, including any that require you to submit further information and get approval before you start on the development (so called pre-commencement conditions). If you do not do so then it is very likely that any work will not count as a proper start, and so the permission would lapse if corrective steps were not taken before it expires.
We have recently been asked to advise two clients on this issue, with very differing results. One had bought a permission, and had thought that they had made a material start before its expiry. However, having looked at the documents , it was discovered that they had not built the development as per the approved plans, and a pre-commencement condition requiring approval of key details had not been addressed before they started work. As a result, our advice was that their permission had expired, and they will now have to re-apply for a new consent and incur the costs and risks of applying for a new permission. In contrast, another client had taken on a site with consent and asked us for advice on how to safeguard the permission. We were able to advise on the requirements of the conditions, assist them with addressing those, and then also assist on identifying what steps should be taken to safeguard the consent, and finally get confirmation from the Authority that they had made a proper start and so the permission was safeguarded. The result is that the consent has been protected, thus retaining the considerable increase in the value of their land.
The key message here is that it is always a good idea to properly read and understand any planning permission that you are involved with, and that you should seek advice on what to do to properly start any consent.
