Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that retrospective planning applications are not overused.

Retrospective applications must be determined in the same way as any other planning application and there is no guarantee that permission will be granted just because the development has already taken place. We have given local planning authorities the power to decline to determine a retrospective planning application if an enforcement notice has already been issued in relation to any part of the development. We have recently consulted on doubling the fee for retrospective planning applications and an announcement on the outcome will be made in due course.