Crown Development and Urgent Crown Development decisions
Decisions on Crown Development and Urgent Crown Development planning applications.
Sections 293B to 293E of the Town and Country Planning Act provide for two separate routes for nationally important Crown Development to apply for planning permission. Those are the Crown Development and Urgent Crown Development routes.
The following statement comprises the policy when a development is considered to be of national importance and when it is urgent crown development:
Written Ministerial Statement of 13 February 2025
Crown Development
This route allows an ‘appropriate authority’ to make an application directly to the Secretary of State, via the Planning Inspectorate, rather than to the local planning authority where the Secretary of State considers that the development is of ‘national importance’. The process for the Crown Development route is set out in the Town and Country Planning (Crown Development Applications) (Procedure and Written Representations) Order 2025.
Urgent Crown Development
There is a special procedure to speed up the process for determining a planning application where there is an urgent need for the Crown to undertake nationally important development.
The Urgent Crown Development procedure allows an ‘appropriate authority’ to make a planning application directly to the Secretary of State rather than to the local planning authority where the proposed development is of national importance and needed as a matter of urgency. The process for Urgent Crown Development is set out in the Town and Country Planning (Crown Development) (Urgent Applications) (Procedure) (England) Order 2025.