Full Planning Permission

Full planning permission – sometimes called detailed permission – is the standard planning application. You submit the whole scheme, the council decides the whole scheme, and if it says yes you can build. It is the route for anything that counts as development and is not permitted development, not a householder job, and not something you want to test in outline first. This page covers what it is, how the decision is made, how long it takes, how long the permission lasts, and what happens if you are refused.

 

What is full planning permission?

Planning permission is required for development, under section 57 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. Development is defined in section 55 as building, engineering, mining or other operations in, on, over or under land, or a material change in the use of land or buildings.

A full application asks the council to approve the entire proposal in one go: the principle of the development and all the detail – layout, scale, appearance, access, landscaping, materials. If permission is granted you can, subject to conditions, start work.

That is the difference from an outline application, which establishes the principle and leaves the detail -the reserved matters – to be approved later. Outline suits a landowner testing whether a site will be accepted before spending money on detailed design. Full permission suits anyone who knows exactly what they want to build.

 

When is a full application the right one?

Work through it in order, because the cheapest application is the one you do not have to make:

• Is it development at all? Internal works that do not materially affect the external appearance of a building usually are not
• Is it permitted development? A great deal is – see our guide to permitted development. If it is, you need no permission, though you may want a certificate of lawfulness of proposed use to prove it
• Is it a householder application? Works to an existing house, or within its curtilage and incidental to it, go in as a householder application – cheaper and simpler. But not if it involves a change of use, or changes the number of dwellings, or the building is a flat
• Would outline be better? If you are testing the principle before committing to design costs, outline may be the smarter first step

If none of those apply, a full application is your route.

 

How the decision is made

The starting point is section 38(6) of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004: the determination must be made in accordance with the development plan unless material considerations indicate otherwise. That single sentence does most of the work in the English planning system.

So the question is not whether the council likes your scheme. It is whether the scheme accords with the local plan, and if it does not, whether there are material considerations strong enough to justify departing from it. Our guides to what is a material consideration and what is not are the place to start – a great many objections raise things that simply cannot be taken into account.

Under section 70 the council may grant permission unconditionally, grant it subject to conditions, or refuse. Most permissions are conditional; see our guide to planning conditions. Larger schemes may also need a planning obligation under section 106 to make the development acceptable – contributions to schools, highways, affordable housing and so on.

Most applications are decided by planning officers under delegated powers rather than by committee. That balance is about to change: a national scheme of delegation comes into force on 31st October 2026, which will standardise what goes to committee and what does not, and will remove councillors’ power to call applications in. Until then, each council’s own scheme applies.

 

How long does it take?

The council must determine a valid application within:

• 8 weeks for a standard application, starting the day after it received the application
• 13 weeks for major development
• 16 weeks where an environmental impact assessment is required – see our guide to EIA screening and scoping

Any of these can be extended by written agreement between you and the council, and in practice extensions are common. You are not obliged to agree one – but refusing may simply produce a refusal on the deadline instead. See our guide to planning timescales.

Note the clock runs from validation, not submission. An invalid application does not start it. Getting the drawings and supporting documents right first time is the single biggest thing within your control.

 

What does it cost?

A fee is payable, and it varies with the type and scale of development – see our guide to planning fees in England. The fee is payable whether you are approved or refused.

Beyond the fee, the real cost of a full application is the supporting material: drawings, a design and access statement where required, and whatever technical reports the site demands – flood risk, ecology, heritage, transport, drainage. Under-spending here is a false economy, and never more so than now: as of 1st April 2026, a refused application usually cannot be rescued at appeal by producing the report you should have submitted in the first place.

 

How long does full planning permission last?

Development must be begun within three years of the grant, unless the council directs a different period. If permission is granted without such a condition, the three years applies automatically.

Three years, not five: the period was reduced by the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 with effect from 24th August 2005 in England, and older guidance still says five.

Beginning development means carrying out a material operation, and it is a lower bar than most people assume – see our guide to making planning extant. Beware pre-commencement conditions: if a condition must be discharged before you start, work done before discharging it may not count as a lawful start at all.

There is one extension, and it changed recently. Where the grant of permission is challenged in the courts, the implementation period is extended – since 18th February 2026 on a tiered basis: by a year for High Court proceedings, a further year if the case goes to the Court of Appeal, and two more if it reaches the Supreme Court. The Court of Appeal and Supreme Court extensions only apply where the challenge is determined after a full hearing, not where permission or leave is simply refused. And an extension cannot revive a period that has already expired.

 

If you are refused

You can appeal to the Planning Inspectorate under section 78. For a full application the deadline is six months from the date on the decision notice. You can also appeal against conditions you object to, or against the council’s failure to decide in time.

But think carefully first, because the rules changed on 1st April 2026 and the change is fundamental. For applications submitted on or after that date, most appeals now follow an expedited procedure in which the Inspector considers only what was already in front of the council. There is no statement of case and no new evidence. If the refusal could be overcome by amending the scheme or adding a report, the government’s own guidance says you should submit a fresh application rather than appeal.

Which regime applies turns on when the application was submitted, not when you appeal. See our guide to planning appeals, and our page on appeal timescales, for the full picture, including the shorter deadlines that bite if an enforcement notice is involved.

Only the applicant can appeal. A neighbour who objects to a permission has no appeal, and their route is the courts.

 

After permission is granted

A grant is the beginning of the process, not the end:

• pre-commencement conditions must be discharged before you start
• if the scheme needs to change, a section 73 application varies conditions, and a section 96A non-material amendment handles the trivial. Neither can extend the three years
• if the building is listed, you will need listed building consent as well – a separate application, under a separate Act
• most permissions carry a biodiversity net gain condition – a gain plan must be approved before you can lawfully start
• building regulations approval is a different regime again, as are party wall matters and protected species licences. Planning permission is not permission to ignore any of them

See also our guide to the types of planning application.

 

Relevant legislation

Full planning permission sits at the heart of the main planning Act. When checking any provision, use the “Changes to Legislation” panel on legislation.gov.uk, as later amendments are not always shown in the main text.

• Town and Country Planning Act 1990, section 55, the definition of development
• Town and Country Planning Act 1990, section 57, planning permission required for development
• Town and Country Planning Act 1990, section 70, determination of applications, and the power to impose conditions
• Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, section 38, the development plan test at section 38(6)
• Town and Country Planning Act 1990, section 91, the three year limit, and the extension where a permission is challenged in the courts
• Town and Country Planning Act 1990, section 78, the right of appeal
• Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025, section 56, replaced the one year challenge extension with a tiered scheme from 18 February 2026

Other Planning Application Sections

   

Full Planning Permission Page Updated: 12th August 2026