Planning Ministers must avoid successful challenges of their decisions, says DCLG

The guidance has been published by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) and aims to advise Planning Ministers on how to avoid the risk of a successful legal challenge to planning decisions.

The DCLG guidance notes the propriety issues that can arise when the Secretary of State exercises decision-making functions under the planning legislation, with a focus on planning appeals to the Secretary of State, and applications which are called in.

A challenge will succeed if a court is satisfied that Planning Ministers have acted procedurally unfairly. This can be as slight as not acting "fairly", according to the guidance.

The general principles that Planning Ministers must follow include the duty to ensure that no conflict arises and a duty to act fairly and even-handedly.

When making a decision in a planning appeal or call in and the Secretary of State disagrees with his inspector or proposes to take into account new evidence, Ministers must give the other parties the option to make further representations. This is part of the requirement to act "fairly", it said.

"A challenge will succeed if a court is satisfied that Planning Ministers have acted procedurally unfairly," the guidance said.

It is essential that Ministers take no part in making a planning decision if they have, or could be perceived to have, a private or constituency interest, according to the guidance. If Ministers take part in a call-in decision, the guidance warns that any representations, however made, would be made available to all interested parties.