A great deal of coverage has been given recently to the removal of The Crown’s immunity from the planning process. This means that The Crown will now be subject to the Planning Acts. However, it retains elements of protection which are important to understand.

The Crown includes Government Departments and their executive agencies, Her Majesty’s private estate, the Duchys of Lancaster and Cornwall, and the Crown Estate Commissioners. Collectively, these bodies have an enormous amount of land and buildings within their control.

The changes include a revision to planning application procedures, a new use class for secure residential accommodation and a change to the General Permitted Development Order which gives The Crown a new set of permitted development rights similar to those enjoyed by local authorities and statutory undertakers. The change in the law also allows for special planning procedures in the event of national emergencies and for national security development.

However, it is not correct to say that The Crown’s immunity to the planning and development control system has come to a complete end. Whilst the development of land and buildings is subject to normal planning application procedures there are still some important distinctions:

  1. Enforcement – although The Crown is now subject to enforcement action for breaches of planning control under the Planning Acts, The Crown remains immune from prosecution for any offence under the Planning Acts. Even then, the local planning authority, before taking any enforcement steps in relation to development on Crown land, must first obtain the consent of the appropriate Crown body.
  2. Tree Preservation - The Crown is prohibited from lopping, topping or felling any tree in a Conservation Area, unless it serves notice of its intention to do so on the local planning authority and it carries out the lopping, topping or felling either with the consent of the authority, or between 6 weeks and 2 years after the date of the notice.
  3. Compulsory acquisition of land – Crown land is liable to compulsory acquisition, but only if the appropriate Crown body consents to the acquisition.

The new rules and the important distinctions will need to be taken into account by Crown bodies and by those companies and institutions who are seeking to entering into agreements for the development and use of Crown land.

This article was written for Law-Now, CMS Cameron McKenna's free online information service. To register for Law-Now, please go to www.law-now.com/law-now/mondaq

Law-Now information is for general purposes and guidance only. The information and opinions expressed in all Law-Now articles are not necessarily comprehensive and do not purport to give professional or legal advice. All Law-Now information relates to circumstances prevailing at the date of its original publication and may not have been updated to reflect subsequent developments.

The original publication date for this article was 28/09/2006.