The Government has now published the detailed consultation on mayoral planning powers in England. The proposals would give mayors of Strategic Authorities a formal role in applications of potential strategic importance, including the ability to call in and determine qualifying applications or direct the local planning authority to refuse them.
The consultation was published on 24 August 2026 and runs until 5 October 2026. It fills in much of the detail that was missing when the proposals were first announced a day earlier, including the three-stage procedure, the proposed national thresholds, the applicant’s ability to ask a mayor to step in after statutory non-determination, Mayoral Development Orders and an expanded Mayoral Community Infrastructure Levy.
The important qualification remains: these powers are not yet available for a live application outside London. The enabling framework is already in the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026, but secondary legislation is still required. Government intends the application call-in powers to commence in early 2027.
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What is actually being proposed?
The phrase ‘overrule local councils’ makes a handy headline, but the proposed system is more structured than that. It is modelled on the three-stage London process.
- Stage 1 – consultation: a validated application of potential strategic importance would be referred to the mayor, who would consider how it sits with the Spatial Development Strategy
- Stage 2 – decision to intervene: when the local planning authority reaches its minded-to-grant or minded-to-refuse position, it would notify the mayor. The mayor would then have 14 days to leave the decision with the council, direct refusal, or call the application in
- Stage 3 – mayoral determination: if called in, the mayor becomes the local planning authority for the purpose of deciding the application and proceeds by a public hearing or written representations
The statutory framework is in section 33 and Schedule 14 of the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026. The detailed implementation proposals are now in the 24 August 2026 consultation.
If a mayor calls an application in, the host council would have to send across the representations received, including those from statutory consultees, local residents and parish or town councils. The mayor could also call in connected applications, such as listed building consent, and would be responsible for negotiating any associated section 106 agreement.
That is materially different from giving a mayor a general right to reopen any unpopular committee decision. The vast majority of applications would remain with the local planning authority.
Can the applicant ask the mayor to step in?
Yes. This is one of the more interesting details in the consultation.
If a qualifying application has not been determined within its statutory time period, the applicant would be able to ask the mayor to intervene and determine it. The mayor would not be obliged to take it over and could decline the request.
That does not remove the normal right to appeal for non-determination. It would instead give an applicant on a strategic scheme another possible route where the host authority has failed to reach a decision.
Which developments would be caught?
The consultation proposes a common set of applications of potential strategic importance outside London. Importantly, not every category is proposed to operate immediately.
From day one, the common large-scale development categories would be:
- development of more than 150 homes
- more than 15,000 square metres of non-residential floorspace or mixed-use development
- a building over 30 metres in height
- an increase of 15 metres or more in height where the resulting building would be over 30 metres
The Government is consulting on making the wider infrastructure and strategic-policy categories available after a Spatial Development Strategy has been adopted. Those proposed categories are much broader.
Large-scale infrastructure categories proposed after SDS adoption
- mining: a site area of 10 hectares
- waste development: capacity of more than 5,000 tonnes of hazardous waste a year, more than 50,000 tonnes of waste a year, or a site occupying 1 hectare
- transport and infrastructure: an aircraft runway, heliport, air passenger terminal, railway or tram station, tramway, underground, surface or elevated railway, cable car, bus or coach station, 4 hectares of storage and distribution development, an air terminal increasing capacity by more than 500,000 people a year, storage of 70 or more buses or coaches, or a bus/coach storage area over 0.7 hectares
- waste development contrary to the development plan: a site over 0.5 hectares, capacity above 2,000 tonnes of hazardous waste a year, or above 20,000 tonnes of waste a year
- energy: solar development between 50 and 100MW, onshore wind between 50 and 100MW, standalone battery storage of 100MW or more, and electricity network projects such as converter stations, switching stations and grid substations where they are consented under the Town and Country Planning Act
Strategic-policy categories proposed after SDS adoption
- loss of housing or housing capacity: loss of 200 homes, or prejudicing residential use of land with a site area of 4 hectares or more – direct refusal only
- business, general industrial and storage/distribution: 4 hectares where the development is likely to prejudice continued use for those purposes – direct refusal only
- playing fields: loss of 2 hectares
- Green Belt: development involving a building with 1,000 square metres or more of floorspace
- uses contrary to the development plan: 2,500 square metres or more of specified retail, financial/professional, restaurant/café, drinking establishment, hot-food takeaway, business, general industrial, storage/distribution, hotel, residential institution, non-residential institution or assembly/leisure floorspace – direct refusal only
The consultation also asks whether the newer London Category 3J approach – 50 homes or more where the local planning authority is minded to refuse – should eventually be available to mayors outside London. That is a consultation question, not part of the proposed day-one national threshold at present.
Which mayors would get the powers?
The framework is for mayors of Strategic Authorities outside London, rather than a permanently fixed list of named councils. That matters because devolution arrangements will continue to evolve.
The powers are designed to work alongside the strategic plan for the area. Our guide to Spatial Development Strategies explains that wider framework.
How is this different from London?
London is the model, but the regimes should not be treated as identical.
The Mayor of London already receives applications of potential strategic importance under the Town and Country Planning (Mayor of London) Order 2008. At Stage 2, the Mayor can allow the borough to determine an application, direct refusal or take it over. You can see the current process on London City Hall’s planning powers page.
London also gained Category 3J from 11 May 2026 for schemes of 50 or more homes where a borough is minded to refuse. The August consultation asks whether something similar should be available outside London, but it has not simply copied that 50-home threshold nationally.
Our London Plan guide explains the strategic planning framework already operating in Greater London.
Mayoral Development Orders – the ‘up-front permission’ proposal
The Government’s description of mayors granting ‘up-front permission’ refers to a Mayoral Development Order, or MDO. An MDO can grant planning permission for specified development on one or more sites without each proposal first requiring its own planning application.
The consultation proposes a framework broadly modelled on Local Development Orders. A mayor would prepare a draft order, statement of reasons and plan, carry out publicity and consultation, consider representations and then decide whether to make the order. The proposed minimum consultation period is 30 days.
MDOs are proposed to be unavailable for Schedule 1 EIA development and minerals development. Schedule 2 EIA development could still fall within an MDO, subject to the normal EIA screening and assessment requirements, and the Habitats Regulations would continue to apply.
Government intends to lay the secondary legislation and bring the MDO legal framework into operation by the end of 2026, subject to the consultation and Parliamentary scheduling.
Mayoral Community Infrastructure Levy
The same consultation also develops the proposed Mayoral Community Infrastructure Levy outside London. London already has MCIL, but the 2026 Act extends the legal framework to mayors of Strategic Authorities elsewhere in England.
The Government intends that a Spatial Development Strategy should be in place before a mayor can charge MCIL. Local-tier authorities would collect the levy on the mayor’s behalf, and local CIL rate-setting would have to take the mayoral levy into account when considering viability.
Unlike London’s current transport-focused model, the consultation asks whether MCIL outside London should be capable of funding a broader range of strategic infrastructure whose benefits extend across the mayoral area.
This would sit alongside local Community Infrastructure Levy and section 106, so the viability implications could become important once mayoral charging schedules begin to emerge.
Local Development Orders are also being changed
The consultation is not only about mayoral powers. It also proposes changes to the existing Local Development Order regime.
At present, Article 38(12)(a) of the Development Management Procedure Order prevents an LDO from granting planning permission for development affecting a listed building. Government proposes removing that restriction so that, for example, an LDO could operate alongside a Local Listed Building Consent Order or support regeneration where listed buildings are nearby.
That would not remove listed building consent. Works requiring listed building consent would still need it, and the section 66 duty to have special regard to preserving a listed building, its setting and features of special architectural or historic interest would remain.
The consultation also proposes preventing LDOs from granting permission for minerals development and making some minor procedural changes. Government intends to implement the LDO changes by the end of 2026, subject to consultation and Parliamentary scheduling.
What do the new mayoral planning powers mean in practice?
For applicants and developers, the biggest change is that a strategic scheme may acquire a genuine second decision-making layer. On a qualifying application, the host council will no longer necessarily be the only planning audience that matters.
The proposed applicant request after statutory non-determination could also become useful on stalled strategic applications. It should not be oversold – the mayor can say no – but it creates a new potential route alongside the existing appeal system.
For councils, a minded-to-grant or minded-to-refuse position on a qualifying application may not be the end of the matter. At Stage 2 the mayor would have 14 days to decide whether to intervene, and a call-in would transfer determination – and associated section 106 negotiations – to the mayor.
For planning advisers, the practical lesson is to identify the strategic-authority dimension early. On a qualifying scheme, an application strategy will increasingly need to address the development plan, national policy and the emerging or adopted strategic spatial framework, rather than treating the host council as the only relevant political and planning audience.
When will the powers start?
The consultation closes at 23:59 on 5 October 2026.
Subject to the consultation and Parliamentary scheduling, Government intends to lay the secondary legislation for applications of potential strategic importance by the end of 2026, with a commencement date in early 2027. The MDO and LDO frameworks are intended to be implemented by the end of 2026.
Until those regulations and commencement arrangements are in place, the proposed thresholds should not be treated as an operative call-in test for a live application outside London.
Primary sources
- GOV.UK: Planning powers for mayors in England consultation, 24 August 2026
- GOV.UK: Mayors given powers to green light developments, 23 August 2026
- English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026, section 33
- English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026, Schedule 14
- GOV.UK: Devolution Framework explainers
- London City Hall: current mayoral planning application powers
Created: 23rd August 2026 | Updated: 31st August 2026 | Mayoral planning powers
