Planning Committees and the National Scheme of Delegation

Not yet in force. The rules on this page take effect on 31st October 2026. Until then, each council still uses its own scheme of delegation, and the arrangements described here do not apply.

From that date, the question of which planning applications go to a committee and which are decided by officers stops being a matter for each council and becomes national law. Councillors lose the power to call applications in. The old rule where enough objections automatically triggered a committee hearing disappears. And a council that gets it wrong risks having its decision quashed. This page explains what is changing, and what it means whether you are applying or objecting.

 

 

 

What is the national scheme of delegation?

 

Most planning applications are already decided by planning officers under delegated powers rather than by elected members at a committee. Only a minority reach a committee at all.

The problem the government identified is that the split varies enormously between councils, because each one sets its own scheme under section 101 of the Local Government Act 1972. The same application might be delegated in one district and go to committee next door.

The national scheme of delegation replaces those local schemes with a single set of rules for the whole of England. Section 54 of the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 inserted sections 319ZZC to 319ZZF into the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, giving the Secretary of State power to say which functions must be delegated to officers and which may go to a committee. That power has been exercised through the Town and Country Planning (Discharge of Local Planning Authority Functions) (England) Regulations 2026.

The stated aim is that committees should focus on the proposals that genuinely matter to an area, and that the more minor and technical decisions should sit with officers.

 

When does the national scheme of delegation start?

 

The regulations were made on 15th July 2026 as SI 2026/854, and come into force on 31st October 2026. They were laid before Parliament in draft, approved by a resolution of each House, and are now on the statute book. What remains is the wait until they take effect.

If you see 30th September quoted anywhere, that was an earlier draft. The date was put back by a month to give councils more time to make the necessary arrangements.

They apply to England only, and to local planning authorities to which sections 101 and 102 of the Local Government Act 1972 apply. Two bodies are expressly carved out: National Park authorities and the Broads Authority. Mineral planning authorities are dealt with separately and only in relation to the guidance duty, where National Park authorities are excluded but the Broads Authority is not.

 

Schedule 1: applications that must go to officers

 

Schedule 1 lists the applications that must be delegated to an officer. There is no discretion and no route to a committee. The list is longer than most summaries suggest:

• householder applications, as defined in the Development Management Procedure Order
• minor commercial applications, as defined in the same Order
• minor residential applications, meaning development comprising at least one but not more than nine dwellings on a site smaller than 0.5 hectares; separately, incidental works to a building containing flats also count, unless they involve a change of use or a change to the number of flats
• permission in principle
• reserved matters approval on an outline permission that is not a large outline permission
• applications made under a planning condition, under article 27(1) of the Development Management Procedure Order, which includes discharge of conditions
• prior approval applications, and applications for a determination as to whether prior approval is required, under the General Permitted Development Order
• section 73 applications where the original permission was itself a Schedule 1 permission
• non-material amendments under section 96A
• certificates of lawfulness of existing use (section 191) and proposed use (section 192)
• certificates of lawfulness of proposed works to a listed building under section 26H
• submission of a biodiversity gain plan
• section 106A requests to modify or discharge a planning obligation connected with a Schedule 1 approval
• certificates of appropriate alternative development under section 17 of the Land Compensation Act 1961

So if you are extending your house, that decision will be taken by an officer. It will not go to committee, however many neighbours object, and no councillor can send it there.

Note the listed building twist. A section 26H certificate, confirming proposed works would not affect a listed building’s character, is Schedule 1 and must be delegated. But an application for listed building consent itself is Schedule 2 and may go to committee. The certificate that says you need no consent is treated as more routine than the consent.

 

Schedule 2: applications that may go to committee

 

Schedule 2 covers everything of substance that Schedule 1 does not:

• any application for planning permission that is not a householder, minor commercial or minor residential application, in other words the larger schemes
• listed building consent, and variation or discharge of its conditions under section 19
• any application for planning permission the authority considers connected with a listed building consent application
• retrospective applications under section 73A
• section 73 applications where the original permission was a Schedule 2 permission
• reserved matters approval on a large outline permission
• advertisement consent
• consent for works under a tree preservation order
• section 106A requests connected with a Schedule 2 approval

A large outline permission means one permitting 500 or more dwellings, or a building or buildings creating 50,000 square metres or more of floorspace. Below that, reserved matters must be delegated.

But note the word “may”. Schedule 2 does not mean an application goes to committee. The presumption is still that it is delegated to an officer. Referral is the exception, and it has to be earned through the gateway test.

One trap worth knowing. An application only counts as Schedule 1 if it is not also a Schedule 2 application. So a minor residential application that the council considers connected with a listed building consent application is pulled into Schedule 2, and becomes referable, even though minor residential is otherwise a must-delegate. Small schemes touching listed buildings can therefore still reach a committee.

 

The gateway test

 

A Schedule 2 application can only be referred to a committee where two people agree that referral is appropriate:

• the nominated officer, in most cases the chief planning officer
• the nominated member, in most cases the chair of the planning committee

Both must agree. Either can effectively decline. And they must also be satisfied that at least one of two criteria is met:

• the application raises an economic, social or environmental issue of significance to the local area
• or it raises a significant planning matter, having regard to the development plan and other material considerations

The statutory guidance gives examples of what might qualify: an outline application for a large multi-phase residential development allocated in the local plan; the change of use of a community shop in a rural area; listed building consent for changes to a notable listed building in a town centre.

It also gives examples of where a significant planning matter is unlikely to arise: where the application broadly complies with a detailed site allocation and other relevant policies, or where a statutory consultee raised a concern that has since been resolved by modifications to the scheme.

Councils do not have to consider every Schedule 2 application against the gateway. The guidance is clear that referral should be exceptional rather than routine, and any Schedule 2 application not referred must be delegated to an officer.

 

What this means if you are objecting

 

This is the change most people will feel, and it is worth being blunt about it.

Councillor call-in is going. The familiar route of lobbying your ward member to pull an application to committee will not exist. A councillor has no power to refer anything under the new scheme.

Objection thresholds are going too. Many councils currently send an application to committee automatically once it attracts a certain number of objections. That mechanism disappears. Twenty objections, or two hundred, will not by themselves get an application in front of members.

What remains is the substance. The gateway test asks whether the application raises a significant issue, not how many people are unhappy about it. So an objection that identifies a genuine planning problem is worth more than ever, and a petition is worth less. Our guides to objecting to an application and to material considerations matter accordingly.

And the hard truth that has not changed: only the applicant can appeal. If permission is granted, an objector’s only route is the courts.

 

What this means if you are applying

 

On balance, this is good news for applicants, and particularly for smaller ones.

If your scheme is in Schedule 1, whether a house extension, a small residential scheme of nine dwellings or fewer, or a discharge of conditions, it cannot go to committee. That removes the single biggest source of unpredictability in small-scale planning: a technically compliant application refused at committee against officer advice, costing months and an appeal.

The risk is not theoretical. In the 2026 Chichester appeal costs case, members refused a 49-home scheme contrary to officer advice on technical highway and railway-crossing grounds. The Inspector stressed that members were entitled to disagree with officers, but found those technical objections were not adequately supported. The partial costs award has since resulted in a £99,000 bill for the council.

For larger schemes in Schedule 2, committee remains possible but is meant to be exceptional. The practical implication is the same as it has always been, only more so: make the officer’s job easy. If the officer report can say the scheme complies with the development plan and raises no significant planning matter, the gateway is unlikely to be crossed. Our separate guide to planning officer reports, committee reasons and apparent bias looks at what happens when officer recommendations, committee decisions and the reasoning behind them are challenged.

 

Own-interest applications

 

There is one significant exception. Own-interest applications are those made by the authority itself, alone or jointly with someone else, or where members or officers have an interest. These sit outside Schedules 1 and 2 altogether, and the nominated member and nominated officer may agree to refer one to a committee at their discretion, with no gateway test to satisfy.

The reasoning is obvious enough: a council deciding its own application behind closed doors is exactly the situation where public scrutiny is worth preserving, whatever the planning merits.

 

Committee size: a cap of 13

 

The regulations also cap planning committees and sub-committees at a maximum of 13 members.

The guidance describes 13 as a ceiling set to accommodate authorities with members from multiple political parties, and says councils should consider whether a smaller number would suit their area better. So expect committees to shrink rather than to sit at the maximum.

 

What happens if a council gets it wrong?

 

The statutory guidance is unusually direct about this. Where a council does not comply from 31st October 2026, and its planning committee decides an application that must have been delegated to officers, that decision may be subject to judicial review by anyone aggrieved by it.

Which cuts both ways. An applicant refused at a committee that should never have heard the application has a clear line of challenge by judicial review. So, in principle, does a neighbour unhappy with a permission granted the same way.

Councils must have regard to the statutory guidance in making and operating their arrangements, and nominated officers and members must have regard to it when considering a referral. They also need to amend their constitutions before the date, which is why the implementation was put back a month.

There is one further protection worth knowing about. Where an application is to be determined by an officer, the regulations say the authority must not make arrangements that limit the officer’s discretion as to how to determine it. So a council cannot delegate a decision and then tie the officer’s hands about the outcome.

The Secretary of State must review the regulations and publish the conclusions by 31st October 2028, two years after they take effect.

 

Until 31st October 2026

 

None of this applies yet. Until that date:

• each council’s own scheme of delegation governs what goes to committee
• councillor call-in still works where the local scheme provides for it
• objection thresholds still trigger committee referral where the local scheme provides for it
• there is no national cap on committee size

If you have an application in the system now, it is being decided under the old arrangements. If you are planning one for the autumn, it is worth knowing which side of the date it falls.

See also our guide to the types of planning application.

 

National Scheme of Delegation relevant legislation

 

The national scheme of delegation is made but not yet in force. The primary powers are in the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 as amended in 2025; the detail is in regulations made on 15th July 2026 that take effect on 31st October 2026. 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.

• Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025, section 54: which inserted sections 319ZZC to 319ZZF into the Town and Country Planning Act 1990
• Town and Country Planning Act 1990, section 319ZZC: the power to specify which functions must be delegated to officers
• Town and Country Planning Act 1990, section 319ZZD: the power to limit the size and make-up of planning committees
• Town and Country Planning Act 1990, section 319ZZE: the duty to have regard to the Secretary of State’s guidance
• Local Government Act 1972, section 101: the existing power under which councils make their own schemes of delegation
• The Town and Country Planning (Discharge of Local Planning Authority Functions) (England) Regulations 2026: SI 2026/854 as made, including Schedule 1 and Schedule 2 in full
• Planning Committees and the National Scheme of Delegation: statutory guidance: the government guidance councils must have regard to

Other Planning Application Sections

 

 

National Scheme of Delegation Page Updated: 3rd September 2026