Planning shake up: appeals procedure revised & Biodiversity Net Gain rules changed
21 May 2026
Revised appeals procedure
The key points are:
Revised guidelines affecting the appeals process took effect on 1st April 2026.
The new procedure will only affect applications submitted to a local authority on or after 1st April 2026. Applications submitted prior to this date will therefore continue to follow the old procedure.
The Planning Inspector will only consider the documents submitted at the application stage and considered by the council, and these are limited to the decision notice, the committee minutes, and Planning Officer’s report. Additionally, the appeal form and the council’s appeal questionnaire will be taken into account.
The appellants and councils will no longer be able to submit a statement of case, or respond to each other’s statements.
If a planning obligation (commonly known as a Section 106 Agreement) is required to support the appeal, an executed document should be provided at the time of lodging the appeal. The timing of lodging the appeal has therefore become important to ensure the planning obligation is ready in good time before you lose your right to appeal, which is normally six months for most types of appeals.
The immediate implication is that when submitting a planning application, all the relevant information and surveys should be provided given that there will not be an opportunity to do so at the appeal stage.
While the new procedure is meant to speed up the appeal process, there are concerns over the loss of opportunity to challenge the Planning Officer’s report directly or to provide additional evidence that could otherwise address some of the reasons for refusal.
The new appeals process will potentially have knock-on effects on the whole planning process given that a lot of councils no longer accept additional information once an application has been registered, leaving applicants with a choice between withdrawing an application and re-submitting it or risking a refusal of permission. Furthermore, some councils only publish objections from the neighbours at the time of issuing the decision notice, so there will be no scope to challenge third-party representations during the application stage and at appeal.
It is too early to judge how effective the new appeals process will be and whether it would effectively curtail the appellant’s rights to challenge decisions by local planning authorities.
Changes to Biodiversity Net Gain requirements
The Government intends to introduce a new area-based exemption to Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) contributions before 31st July 2026, which will apply to all developments where the site area (within the red line boundary) is 0.2 hectares or below.
The Government has explained that this change to the BNG threshold seeks to strike a balance between simplifying the planning process, reducing BNG’s impact on development, and improving biodiversity. It is, however, important to note that the new area-based exemption will not apply where on-site priority habitats are impacted. Developments benefitting from this exemption will continue to be required to satisfy the environmental protection requirements in the Local Plans, national planning policies and guidance, and other wider regulatory requirements.
Local planning authorities will continue to refuse planning permission where significant harm to biodiversity cannot be avoided, adequately mitigated or, as a last resort, compensated.
The new regulations will also:
remove the self and custom build exemption
exempt temporary planning permissions granted for a maximum of five years
amend the biodiversity gain hierarchy for minor development only.
Further categories of exemptions are currently being mooted, so keep an eye out for more updates on our website and social media. If you have any queries on BNG or the new appeals process, then please contact me.
