Open consultation

Consulting the Secretary of State on planning decisions

Published 23 March 2026

Applies to England

This consultation seeks views on three proposed measures which will require Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) to consult the Secretary of State on certain planning applications.  

Scope of this consultation

This consultation seeks views on 2 new proposals for a requirement for LPAs to consult the Secretary of State where they are minded to refuse an application, and a single new proposal for LPAs to consult the Secretary of State where they are minded to allow an application. 

The government has already announced its intention that planning applications for 150 or more dwellings should be referred to the Secretary of State where an LPA is minded to refuse^{[footnote 1]}.  This measure is being brought forward separately. 

It is the Secretary of State’s intention that measures in this consultation will be brought forward via new directions which will sit alongside the current consultation direction.  There are therefore no plans to amend the Town and Country Planning (Consultation) (England) Direction 2024, which will continue to have effect.

Geographical scope

These proposals relate to England only. 

Impact assessment

We will use feedback from the consultation to inform our assessment of the impact of the measures. 

Body responsible for the consultation

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG).

Duration

This consultation will last for 6 weeks from 23 March 2026 to 4 May 2026. 

Enquiries

For any enquiries about the consultation, email pcu@communities.gov.uk

How to respond

You can respond by completing the online survey 

We strongly encourage responses via the online survey, particularly from organisations with access to online facilities, such as local authorities, representative bodies, and businesses. 

Consultations on planning matters receive a high level of interest across many sectors. Using the online survey greatly assists our analysis of the responses, enabling more efficient and effective consideration of the issues raised for each question.  

Alternatively, you can email your response to the questions in this consultation to pcu@communities.gov.uk. 

If you are responding in writing, please make it clear which questions you are responding to. 

Written responses should be sent to: 

Consultation Direction
Planning Casework Unit
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
Third Floor,
Fry Building,
2 Marsham Street,
London,
SW1P 4DF

When you reply, please confirm whether you are replying as an individual or submitting an official response on behalf of an organisation and include: 

• your name
• your position (if applicable)
• the name of organisation (if applicable)
• an address (including postcode)
• an email address
• a contact telephone number

Disclaimer

MHCLG reserves the right to share non-personal data such as responses and thematic analysis derived from the consultation with other government departments and arms’ length bodies.

This does not affect your statutory rights under the government’s Data Sharing Code of Practice.

Introduction

Section 77 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (TCPA 1990) empowers the Secretary of State to make directions requiring applications for planning permission, or for the approval of any LPA required under a development order, to be referred to him for determination (‘called in’) instead of being dealt with by LPAs.

Section 74(1)(c) of the TCPA 1990 and article 18(4) of the Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (England) Order 2015 (DMPO 2015) empower the Secretary of State to issue directions requiring LPAs to consult persons or bodies about planning applications in any case or class of case specified.  The main general direction currently in force is the Town and Country Planning (Consultation) (England) Direction 2024. 

Where an LPA is minded to grant permission for a planning application of a kind specified by this Direction, the LPA must first consult the Secretary of State.  When consulted, the Secretary of State will then go on to consider whether or not to then call in the application for his own determination.

Government has already announced its intention to issue a new direction requiring consultation with the Secretary of State in respect of an application for 150 or more homes which an LPA is minded to refuse (and has recently amended DMPO 2015^{[footnote 1]} to facilitate a direction which requires consultation before a refusal). This consultation seeks views on 3 further proposals for consultation requirements.

Please note that call in of individual applications is not possible after an LPA has issued a formal decision notice in respect of it. 

The overall aim of these proposed changes is to ensure that the right applications are referred for consideration of call in, reflecting Ministerial priorities and aiming to improve clarity where possible.

Structure

This consultation is set out in 3 sections:

1. A new proposal for a requirement to consult the Secretary of State where LPAs are minded to refuse planning permission for specified commercial development
2. A new proposal for a requirement to consult the Secretary of State on certain applications relating to nuclear facilities where LPAs are minded to refuse planning permission; and
3. A new proposal for a requirement to consult the Secretary of State whereby applications for planning permission for residential development within a Defence Detailed Emergency Planning Zone where the Office for Nuclear Regulation and / or a Local Authority’s Emergency Planning Team has made (and not withdrawn) an objection, where the LPA are minded to grant permission. This requirement would have a limited geographical extent (4 LPAs).

6 weeks have been allowed for this consultation – please reply by 4 May 2026. 

Section 1 – Proposals for new consultation requirements where LPAs are minded to refuse planning permission for commercial development with a floorspace of 15,000m² or more

As noted above, government has already announced its intention to issue a new direction requiring consultation with the Secretary of State in respect of an application for 150 or more homes which an LPA is minded to refuse. Government now proposes to make further directions expanding the range of applications which must be the subject of consultation before refusal, to include strategic economic development proposals.

A new consultation direction is proposed which requires consulting the Secretary of State on applications for commercial development with a floorspace of 15,000m² or more where an LPA intends to refuse permission.  This is to ensure that large scale, strategic developments are considered for potential call-in, in order to reflect the Government’s priority of promoting economic growth. 

Consideration

We consider that 15,000m² strikes the right balance on the basis of number of consultations per year against the scale of development. We consider that setting a smaller size threshold would go beyond capturing the strategically important schemes that are the focus of this provision.  

Consultation questions

Question 1

Do you agree with this proposed consultation requirement for applications for large-scale, strategic commercial development where an LPA is minded to refuse?

Question 2

Do you consider the proposed area threshold of 15,000m² or more to be appropriate?

Section 2 – Proposal for new consultation requirements where LPAs are minded to refuse certain applications relating to nuclear facilities

In 2025, the Nuclear Regulatory Task Force (NRTF) report included recommendations to de-risk nuclear projects including in generation and decommissioning. The UK government published a full response to the NRTF on 13 March 2026, where it committed to consulting on expanding the consultation direction so LPAs have to notify the Secretary of State if they are minded to refuse applications for such development.

Many new nuclear projects are classed as Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs), and so fall out of scope of Town and Country Planning. However, certain development associated with decommissioning and the nuclear fuel supply chain does require planning consent under the TCPA 1990.

The UK has a nuclear legacy of research, reactor development and defence programmes initiated during and after the Second World War. This includes the first generation of commercial nuclear power stations and fuel-cycle facilities. Today, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), an arm’s length body of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, is charged with the decommissioning and clean-up of this legacy. The UK government aims to drive better, earlier, and more cost-effective solutions to decommissioning and clean-up.

Decommissioning work includes demolition of buildings, construction of new facilities for storing or processing waste and other radioactive material, and the disposal of waste on-site (subject to an environmental permit). The NDA and its subsidiaries regularly submit planning applications for these decommissioning activities. While the NDA has historically had low levels of planning refusals, as decommissioning across the country progresses, several work streams will reach stages where project delays have the potential to cause increased costs to the taxpayer. Where a LPA is minded to refuse an application, the proposed consultation direction would require the Secretary of State to be notified enabling consideration of whether he should exercise his “call in” powers.  Any such application would be assessed against the policy on calling in applications. 

UK government is investing in the UK’s domestic nuclear fuel supply chain to power the next generation of Advanced Nuclear Technologies. The recently published Advanced Nuclear Framework sets out a direction on future fuel development. Presently, uranium enrichment and fuel fabrication take place at Capenhurst and Springfields in Northwest England, on land owned by the NDA. Nuclear fuel cycle facilities require a nuclear licence in the UK under the Nuclear Installations Act 1965 and associated regulations. However, for completely new ventures, it is likely that planning permission may need to be sought before a nuclear licence is in place. We propose the new consultation direction covers such applications.

In summary, we propose the consultation direction apply to:

1. Applications relating to land owned or leased by the NDA (or one of its subsidiaries).
2. Applications relating to nuclear fuel cycle facilities, including facilities for uranium conversion, enrichment, deconversion, nuclear fuel manufacture, or associated production processes.

Consultation questions

Question 3

Do you agree with the proposed consultation requirement for applications relating to land owned or leased by the NDA or its subsidiaries where the LPA is minded to refuse?

Question 4

Do you agree with the proposed consultation requirement for applications relating to nuclear fuel cycle facilities where the LPA is minded to refuse?

Section 3 – Detailed Emergency Planning Zones (DEPZs) for AWE Aldermaston and AWE Burghfield (‘Defence DEPZs’)

A DEPZ must be determined by an LPA in accordance with regulation 8 of the Radiation (Emergency Preparedness and Public Information) Regulations 2019 where a relevant nuclear site is situated.

The DEPZ is the geographic area which an Off-Site Emergency Plan (OSEP) covers. The OSEP must set out protective actions which would be implemented without delay to mitigate the likely consequences of a radiation emergency, and the local authority, along with the other agencies involved in the OSEP, must be able to respond effectively.

Regulators therefore require assurances that an OSEP, owned by the Council, is adequate and can be implemented effectively in order to protect the public. The Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) and other relevant parties are consulted on any planning applications within a Defence DEPZ.    

Consideration

The importance of the Defence DEPZs for public safety is clear.   We do not consider that commercial developments pose the same element of risk as residential ones.   In order to ensure the continuing effectiveness of OSEPs to safely evacuate individuals from the Defence DEPZs, we propose that the Secretary of State should be consulted on applications for planning permission for one or more dwellings within a Defence DEPZ, or which would increase the population of residents within a Defence DEPZ, where LPAs are minded to grant permission for an application to which the Office for Nuclear Regulation and / or a Local Authority’s Emergency Planning Team has made (and not withdrawn) an objection. 

This provision is proposed to apply only to Defence DEPZs.  It will therefore operate in 4 Local Authority areas:

• Basingstoke and Deane
• Reading
• West Berkshire
• Wokingham

Given its limited geographical reach, we propose that this consultation requirement will be a separate, stand-alone Direction.    

Consultation questions

Question 5

Do you agree with this proposed consultation requirement for applications for residential development within a Defence DEPZ where the LPA are minded to grant permission and the Office for Nuclear Regulation and/or a LPA’s Emergency Planning Team  maintains an objection?

Question 6

Do you agree that one dwelling is the correct threshold for referral?

Next steps

The period of consultation will last 6 weeks and responses should be submitted to arrive by 4 May 2026.

When commenting, please say whether you represent an organisation or group, and in what capacity you are responding.

A summary of responses will be published within 3 months of the end of the consultation period together with an account of how the concerns raised have influenced policy.

All responses will be made public on request, unless confidentiality is requested. Should consultees require the information they provide to be treated as confidential, we will take full account of the reasons behind this request and accommodate them wherever possible in line with the statutory Code of Practice with which public authorities must comply. The automatic confidentiality disclaimer generated by your IT system will not be respected unless you specifically include a request to the contrary in the main text of your response. In any event, the substance of responses may be included in statistical summaries of comments received.

About this consultation

This consultation document and consultation process have been planned to adhere to the Consultation Principles issued by the Cabinet Office.

Representative groups are asked to give a summary of the people and organisations they represent, and where relevant who else they have consulted in reaching their conclusions when they respond.

Information provided in response to this consultation may be published or disclosed in accordance with the access to information regimes (these are primarily the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 and UK data protection legislation.  In certain circumstances this may therefore include personal data when required by law.

If you want the information that you provide to be treated as confidential, please be aware that, as a public authority, the Department is bound by the information access regimes and may therefore be obliged to disclose all or some of the information you provide. In view of this it would be helpful if you could explain to us why you regard the information you have provided as confidential. If we receive a request for disclosure of the information we will take full account of your explanation, but we cannot give an assurance that confidentiality can be maintained in all circumstances. An automatic confidentiality disclaimer generated by your IT system will not, of itself, be regarded as binding on the Department.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government will at all times process your personal data in accordance with UK data protection legislation and in the majority of circumstances this will mean that your personal data will not be disclosed to third parties. A full privacy notice is included below.

Individual responses will not be acknowledged unless specifically requested.

Your opinions are valuable to us. Thank you for taking the time to read this document and respond.

Are you satisfied that this consultation has followed the Consultation Principles?  If not or you have any other observations about how we can improve the process please contact us via the complaints procedure.

Personal data

The following is to explain your rights and give you the information you are entitled to under UK data protection legislation.

Note that this section only refers to personal data (your name, contact details and any other information that relates to you or another identified or identifiable individual personally) not the content otherwise of your response to the consultation.

1. The identity of the data controller and contact details of our Data Protection Officer    

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) is the data controller. The Data Protection Officer can be contacted at dataprotection@communities.gov.uk or by writing to the following address:

Data Protection Officer
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
Fry Building
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF

2. Why we are collecting your personal data  

Your personal data is being collected as an essential part of the consultation process, so that we can contact you to respond to the consultation, and we may also contact you regarding your response and for statistical purposes or use it to contact you about related matters.

We will collect your IP address if you complete a consultation online. We may use this to ensure that each person only completes a survey once. We will not use this data for any other purpose.

For named consultees listed in Annex B, who MHCLG is emailing directly to inform them of the consultation, names and email addresses of relevant persons have either been taken from existing MHCLG systems, provided by other government departments or local authorities, or found on public websites.

Sensitive types of personal data

Please do not share special category personal data or criminal offence data as we have not asked for this. By ‘special category personal data’, we mean information about living individual’s:

• race
• ethnic origin
• political opinions
• religious or philosophical beliefs
• trade union membership
• genetics
• biometrics 
• health (including disability-related information)
• sex life
• sexual orientation

By ‘criminal offence data’, we mean information relating to a living individual’s criminal convictions or offences or related security measures.

3. Our legal basis for processing your personal data

The collection of your personal data is lawful under article 6(1)(e) of the UK General Data Protection Regulation as it is necessary for the performance by MHCLG of a task in the public interest/in the exercise of official authority vested in the data controller.  Section 8(d) of the Data Protection Act 2018 states that this will include processing of personal data that is necessary for the exercise of a function of the Crown, a Minister of the Crown or a government department i.e. in this case a consultation. 

There is also a statutory duty to consult. The 2007 Act requires that, before a proposal for establishing unitary local government can be implemented, the Secretary of State must first consult any local authority that is affected by a proposal (but which has not submitted it), and any such other persons as she considers appropriate.

4. With whom we will be sharing your personal data

MHCLG may appoint a ‘data processor’, acting on behalf of the Department and under our instruction, to help analyse the responses to this consultation.  Where we do we will ensure that the processing of your personal data remains in strict accordance with the requirements of the data protection legislation.

5. For how long we will keep your personal data, or criteria used to determine the retention period.

Your personal data will be held for 2 years from the closure of the consultation, unless we identify that its continued retention is unnecessary before that point.

6. Your rights, for example access, rectification, restriction, objection

The data we are collecting is your personal data, and you have considerable say over what happens to it. You have the right:

a) to see what data we have about you

b) to ask us to stop using your data, but keep it on record

c) to ask to have your data corrected if it is incorrect or incomplete

d) to object to our use of your personal data in certain circumstances

e) to lodge a complaint with the independent Information Commissioner (ICO) if you think we are not handling your data fairly or in accordance with the law.  You can contact the ICO at https://ico.org.uk/, or telephone 0303 123 1113.

Please contact us at the following address if you wish to exercise the rights listed above, except the right to lodge a complaint with the ICO: dataprotection@communities.gov.uk or

Knowledge and Information Access Team,
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government,
Fry Building,
2 Marsham Street,
London
SW1P 4DF

7. Your personal data will not be sent overseas.

8. Your personal data will not be used for any automated decision making.

9. Your personal data will be stored in a secure government IT system

We use a third-party system, Citizen Space, to collect consultation responses. In the first instance your personal data will be stored on their secure UK-based server. Your personal data will be transferred to our secure government IT system as soon as possible, and it will be stored there for 2 years before it is deleted.

1. Planning Reform: Next Phase - Hansard - UK Parliament. ↩ ↩²