Reaction to Localism Bill: lawyers

Daniel Farrand, head of planning at Mishcon de Reya, commented on the bill’s enforcement provisions: "The ability to decline to determine applications while an enforcement notice is in force will be seen by many as a sensible move but may have unforeseen consequences for redevelopment of sites subject to historic enforcement notices which still have teeth. Far more worrying is the new planning enforcement order allowing magistrates to permit enforcement where the council has only recently discovered a breach.

"The test on concealment is drafted far too widely. The magistrates' requirement to consider justice in all the circumstances before granting an order in no way gives sufficient certainty to advise buyers where the is a historic breach of planning control or where compliance with planning cannot be fully established."

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