Introduced through the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 and the Town and Country Planning (Discharge of Local Planning Authority Functions) (England) Regulations 2026, the changes are intended to bring greater consistency to local decision making and reduce the number of applications being unnecessarily considered by planning committees.

These changes apply to all local planning authorities (LPAs) and mineral planning authorities in England, with limited exceptions including:

• development corporations
• national park authorities
• the Broads Authority

A clear national framework

The central aim of the National Scheme of Delegation is to provide greater clarity on which planning decisions should be taken by officers and which should be considered by elected members.

The regulations set out the following general approach to decision making:

• Schedule 1 functions, which must be delegated to officers (unless they are own-interest applications)
• Schedule 2 functions, where there is a presumption in favour of officer delegation, unless the nominated officer and nominated member agree the application should be referred to a planning committee

The government is clear that planning committees should focus on the key proposals that matter to an area, rather than being drawn into minor or technical applications that can be efficiently determined by officers.

Why does this matter?

These amendments represent a fundamental shift in how LPAs structure decision making and should result in significantly fewer applications being determined by planning committee, allowing elected members more time to scrutinise the most important proposals within their area.

Once they come into force, LPAs that fail to comply with the new regulations risk legal challenge, for example, where a planning committee determines an application that should have been delegated to officers.

LPAs will therefore need to review and, where necessary, amend their constitutions in advance of the new regulations taking effect.

What applications will have to be delegated?

Schedule 1 applications, which must be delegated to officers, include the following key types of applications:

• householder development
• minor commercial development
• minor residential development (which includes development of up to nine dwellings on sites below 0.5 hectares)
• section 73 applications where the related planning permission was a Schedule 1 planning permission
• reserved matters approval where the outline planning permission is for fewer than 500 dwellings or less than 50,000 square metres of floorspace
• discharge of conditions
• prior approval applications
• permission in principle
• non-material amendments
• section 106A applications where a planning obligation is connected to a Schedule 1 planning permission
• Biodiversity Gain Plans
• Certificates of Appropriate Alternative Development
• Certificates of lawfulness of existing/proposed use or development, and certificates of lawfulness for proposed works to listed buildings

What can still be referred to committee?

Schedule 2 captures the larger, strategic and more sensitive categories of application, including:

• planning applications which are not householder, minor commercial or minor residential applications
• section 73 applications where the related planning permission was a Schedule 2 planning permission
• reserved matters applications relating to large outline permissions (500+ dwellings or 50,000+ square metres of floorspace)
• section 106A applications where a planning obligation is connected to a Schedule 2 planning permission
• listed building consent (LBC) applications (including variation or discharge of conditions on an LBC, and S73 applications on planning applications connected to LBC applications)
• advertisement consents
• tree preservation order consents

However, even in these cases, the guidance makes clear that the overriding presumption is that such applications will be delegated to officers. Referral to committee should be the exception rather than the rule.

A Schedule 2 application can only be referred to committee where both the nominated officer (in most cases the chief planning officer) and the nominated member (in most cases the chair of the planning committee) agree that referral is appropriate and at least one of the following criteria is met:

1. the application raises an economic, social or environmental issue of significance to the local area
2. the application raises a significant planning matter, having regard to the development plan and other material considerations

The guidance provides examples of applications meeting criteria A. These include applications for outline planning permission for a large multi-phase residential development allocated in the local plan; the change of use of a community shop in a rural area; and listed building consent for changes to a notable listed building in a town centre.

The guidance also provides examples where a significant planning matter (criteria B) is ‘unlikely’ to be raised. These include examples where the application broadly complies with a detailed site allocation and other relevant policies; and applications where a specific planning matter was initially raised by a statutory consultee as a concern, but modifications to the application resolved the concern.

Own-interest applications

A key exception to the above is own-interest applications, which are applications made by the authority itself, whether alone or jointly with another person, or where members or officers have an interest.

The end of member call-ins?

One of the most notable practical consequences of the new regulations is the nationwide removal of member call-in powers and the automatic referral of applications to committee once a certain number of objections has been received. This has the potential to significantly improve certainty and consistency for minor applications and reduce the risk of political uncertainty.

Committee sizes

The new regulations also cap the size of a planning committee or sub-committee at 13 members and LPAs are further encouraged to consider whether a smaller committee would support better and more effective decision making.

A significant procedural reform

Taken together, the new National Scheme of Delegation and associated committee size limits amount to one of the most significant procedural reforms to local planning decision making in recent years.

For applicants, the changes should in many cases provide greater certainty over their route to a decision and potentially reduce delays, subject of course to effective and efficient officer level involvement and resourcing. For LPAs, however, the reforms will require careful implementation to ensure constitutions, governance arrangements and operational processes are aligned with the new statutory framework.

The direction of travel is clear: more decisions by officers, fewer by planning committee, and a more tightly defined role for local democratic oversight.

Further information

Contact Jake Jay or George Lewis