Development control in the United Kingdom

Development control, planning control, or (in Scotland) development management is the element of the United Kingdom's system of town and country planning through which local government regulates land use and new building. It relies on a "plan-led system" whereby development plans are formed and the public is consulted. Subsequent development requires planning permission, which is granted or refused with reference to the development plan as a material consideration. The term "development control" is often abbreviated to DC.

There are 421 local planning authorities (LPAs) in the United Kingdom (although in Scotland, where local authorities are unitary in nature, they are known simply as 'planning authorities'). Generally they are the local borough or district council or a unitary authority. Development involving mining, minerals or waste disposal matters is dealt with by county councils in non-metropolitan areas. Within national parks, it is the national park authority that determines planning applications (although in Scotland the situation is sightly different, whereby the Cairngorms National Park Authority only has the power to call-in and determine certain applications which it deems to be of importance to its objectives).

When the UK's systems of town and country planning were established by the Town and Country Planning Act 1947 and, in Scotland, the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1947, it was generally expected that the great majority of new built development would be undertaken by the public sector: Local authorities, New Town Development Corporations, and the then-new National Health Service, for example. In those cases the commissioning body would grant itself planning permission for the proposals concerned. However, a separate system to grant or withhold planning permission for the small amount of development which would be undertaken by the private sector was also required. This was the origin of the modern system of planning control. In fact this expectation was entirely mistaken as, by the mid 1950s, the rate of private sector development was vastly exceeding that of the public sector. In modern times all development, including that by government departments and local authorities requires planning permission, and is subject to the same process of democratic scrutiny as any private developer.

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