Deemed consent

“Deemed consent” is one of those planning phrases that sounds like a single thing but is not. It turns up in at least four different corners of the planning system, and they work in genuinely different ways. Landing on the wrong one wastes time at best and, at worst, leads you to rely on a permission you do not actually have.

The common thread is simple: in each case the law treats something as consented without the council having made an express positive decision, usually because a deadline passed, or because a class of activity is pre-authorised by legislation. What is being deemed consented, and what that consent actually protects, changes completely from one sense to the next.

This page is a signpost. Pick the sense that matches your situation and follow the link for the detail.

The four meanings of deemed consent

Use whichever description fits what you are dealing with:

• Prior approval deemed consent: you made a prior approval application under permitted development, and the council failed to determine it within the statutory period, so you may proceed as if approval had been given. Often called the “56-day rule”, though the period varies by class. This is the sense most people mean when they say a council “ran out of time”
• Advertisement deemed consent: certain classes of advertisement are granted consent automatically by the advertisement regulations, so you do not need to apply to display them at all, provided you stay within the class conditions
• Deemed discharge of conditions: you applied to have a planning condition formally discharged, the council missed its deadline, and you served a deemed discharge notice so the condition is treated as discharged
• Deemed planning permission: planning permission that is treated as granted by operation of law, for example development authorised by a government department, or permission deemed to be granted in certain appeal situations

Which one do I need?

A quick way to narrow it down:

• If a council deadline passed on something you submitted, it is almost certainly either prior approval deemed consent (for a prior approval application) or deemed discharge (for a condition)
• If you are asking whether you need to apply to put up a sign, you want advertisement deemed consent
• If you are dealing with development by a public body or an appeal outcome, you want deemed planning permission

A word of caution that applies right across the family: a deadline being missed rarely makes your whole scheme lawful. It usually only settles the specific matter that was in front of the council. Whatever was already required by the underlying permission, class conditions or legislation still has to be satisfied. Each linked page explains exactly what its version of deemed consent does and does not protect.

These pages describe the position in England. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland run their own planning systems and the detail differs.

Deemed Consent Page Updated: 21st July 2026