What is a material consideration?

When a council decides a planning application, it cannot simply weigh up whatever it likes. It must reach its decision on planning grounds, meaning the matters the law recognises as relevant to the use and development of land. These relevant matters are known as material considerations.

Understanding what is (and is not) material is the single most useful thing you can learn before commenting on an application, whether you are the applicant, a supporter or an objector. A well-made point that is material carries weight. A strongly-felt point that is not material carries none, however many times it is repeated.

This page explains what counts. Its companion page sets out what is not a material consideration.

What the law says

The starting point is the statutory duty to decide applications in line with the development plan unless material considerations indicate otherwise. This “plan-led” test is long established under section 70(2) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 and section 38(6) of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, and it applies equally to applications and to appeals.

A note on the framework: the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 introduced changes to how the development plan and national policy interact (including National Development Management Policies). The change to the test is section 93 of that Act, and it has never been brought into force. Section 38(6) in its familiar form is still the test, and the stronger wording of material considerations strongly indicating otherwise does not apply. We will update this page if that changes.

Neither the Acts nor the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) give a closed list of what counts as material. Parliament deliberately left it open, so that decision-makers can respond to the facts of each site. What the courts have done is set the boundaries.

The two legal tests

The leading authority is Stringer v Minister of Housing and Local Government [1970], which established the broad principle that any consideration relating to the use and development of land is capable of being a material consideration. Later cases refined this into two practical tests. To be material, a consideration must:

• relate to planning: it must concern the use or development of land, not a private grievance; and
• fairly and reasonably relate to the development in question: the test drawn from Newbury District Council v Secretary of State for the Environment [1981]

A matter can be material even if, in the end, it is given little weight. Being material simply means the decision-maker is entitled to take it into account. How much it counts for is a separate question, covered below.

Common material considerations

The following are routinely treated as material. This list is illustrative, not exhaustive, and the relevance of any point always depends on the site and the proposal:

• The development plan: the local plan, any neighbourhood plan, and the London Plan where relevant. This is the starting point, not just a material consideration. In rural areas this includes the settlement boundary, which decides whether your site is treated as built-up area or open countryside
• Emerging local plan – the weight it carries depends on the stage of preparation, the extent of unresolved objections and how closely it follows the NPPF
• National planning policy: the NPPF and Planning Practice Guidance
• Design, layout, scale and appearance: how the proposal sits in its surroundings
• Impact on the character and appearance of the area, including the street scene
• Loss of privacy, overlooking and overshadowing to neighbouring properties
• Loss of light and general residential amenity
• Highway safety, access, parking and traffic generation
• Noise, disturbance, smell, dust and other amenity impacts arising from the use
• Heritage: effects on listed buildings, conservation areas, scheduled monuments and their settings
• Trees, landscaping, ecology and biodiversity, including protected species and biodiversity net gain
• Flood risk and drainage
• Contaminated land and ground stability
• The planning history of the site, including previous appeal decisions
• The fall-back position: what could lawfully be done anyway, for example under permitted development

Public representations are themselves a material consideration, but only to the extent that they raise material points. Two hundred objections all raising the same non-material concern add nothing; one letter raising a genuine amenity harm can shift a decision.

Who decides, and how much weight?

Whether something is capable of being material is a question of law. How much weight to give it is a matter of planning judgement for the decision-maker: the case officer, planning committee or, on appeal, the Planning Inspector. The courts will overturn a decision that took an immaterial matter into account, or ignored a material one, but they will not substitute their own view on the planning merits.

This is why two applications that look similar can be decided differently: the balance of material considerations, and the weight given to each, is specific to the site.

Why this matters to you

If you are commenting on an application, frame every point as a material consideration and, where you can, tie it to a specific policy in the development plan or the NPPF. A comment that says “this will overlook my garden and conflicts with local plan policy on residential amenity” is far more useful than “I don’t want this built.”

Read this alongside our guides on how to object to a planning application and how to support one, and be clear on what is not a material consideration.

Relevant legislation

• Town and Country Planning Act 1990, section 70: the duty to have regard to the development plan and to any other material considerations
• Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, section 38: what the development plan is, and the duty to decide in accordance with it unless material considerations indicate otherwise
• Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023, section 93: the stronger test and national development management policies, not in force

Material Consideration Page Updated: 8th August 2026

Other Planning Application Sections