The National Scheme of Delegation came into force on 31 October 2026. This means that many more applications should now be determined at officer level, than by Planning Committees, than has been the case previously. It is part of the Government’s aim to speed up the planning application process, while driving at greater consistency in decision making. It wishes to enable Committees to focus on schemes which would have greater local significance.
Under the rules in the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 (and the Town and Country Planning (Discharge of Local Planning Authority Functions) (England) Regulations 2026)
Councils should now have amended their constitutions and Committee Referral Procedures, in order to comply with the new rules and the above start date. Other reforms deal with the number of Committee members and the training they must have.
At the date when this new approach to planning should have been in place, at least four Planning Committees across England had however rebelled against this new law and were refusing to amend their constitutions in line with the new rules. They had raised issues such as that the National Scheme of Delegation would be against local democracy and that the Council would “lose control of development in the area”.
There is a risk that any future decisions, which are not now made in line with the National Scheme of Delegation, could be challenged and quashed. There could also be significant delays for applications currently going through the planning system in those particular Councils. Officers may indeed be unwilling to present a planning application to Committee, if they know it would not go there under the correct application of the new rules. We are aware that those Committee Members are being strongly recommended to accept and follow the new rules, by agreeing to amend the Council constitution and by not trying to decide applications which should now be left to officers. It will be interesting to see how long the rebels hold out and if it will really take a decision being quashed in the Court before they concede.
