First Secretary of State v Arun District Council & Anor [2006] EWCA Civ 1172
The point in plain English: Under the enforcement law then in force, a breach of a planning condition which resulted in a building being used as a separate single dwellinghouse attracted the same four-year time limit as an otherwise unauthorised change to a single dwellinghouse.
What the Court of Appeal decided
An extension had been permitted subject to conditions preventing it from becoming separate residential accommodation. It was later occupied independently. The council argued that because the breach was framed as a breach of condition, the then ten-year residual time limit applied.
The Court of Appeal rejected that approach. On the wording of section 171B then in force, the breach consisted in a change of use to a single dwellinghouse, so the historic four-year limit applied whether the breach was development without permission, breach of condition, or both.
Important current-law warning
Arun remains important for historic and transitional cases, but it must not be applied as if England still has the same four-year rule. For breaches beginning on or after 25th April 2024, the general enforcement time limit is now ten years. Transitional provisions preserve the former four-year protection for certain operational development and single-dwellinghouse changes that occurred before that date.
See Planning Geek’s current guide to enforcement time limits.
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