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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, on how many occasions he has (a) revoked or (b) modified planning permission under Section 100 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 in each year since 2009-10; on how many such occasions the local planning authority paid compensation to developers in respect of that decision; and what the total value of the compensation paid to developers in those circumstances was in each of those years.

The Secretary of State has not exercised his powers to revoke or modify planning permission under Section100 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 on any occasions since 2009-10. Accordingly, there have been no occasions where local authorities have been required to pay compensation to developers.

The powers to revoke or modify planning permissions have been used very rarely, I refer the hon. Member to the Ministerial statement which can be found at:
(http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmhansrd/vo060316/text/60316w18.htm) which confirmed that such intervention by the Secretary of State can only be justified in exceptional circumstances. The power will generally be used only if the original decision is judged to be ‘grossly wrong, so that damage is likely to be done to the wider public interest’. Within the past 20 years these powers have only been exercised on two occasions in Alnwick, Northumberland and Restormel Borough, Cornwell.