Material planning considerations

General guidance, not advice. This guide explains how UK planning law works in general terms. It is not legal or planning advice for your specific site, and the law changes over time and differs between England and Wales. Check the current rules with your local planning authority or a qualified planning professional before you act.

A material planning consideration is any consideration relevant to the use and development of land. It is the lens through which every planning application is judged. The statute is blunt about it: applications must be determined in accordance with the development plan, unless material considerations indicate otherwise. So the decision is never a free choice by the council - it is a structured weighing of the plan against every other material matter that bears on the use of the land.

Two things follow. First, the development plan is the starting point, not a tiebreaker that only matters when everything else is level. Second, almost anything that touches land use can be a material consideration - but the weight it carries is the real question, and that is where most applications are won or lost.

What counts as a material consideration

There is no closed list. The courts have consistently held that a material consideration is anything that relates to the use and development of land - in other words, anything that ought legitimately to influence a planning decision. Section 70(2) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 requires the local planning authority, in dealing with an application, to have regard to the provisions of the development plan (so far as material to the application), any local finance considerations, and "any other material considerations." The companion provision, section 38(6) of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, sets the statutory rule: applications are to be determined in accordance with the development plan unless material considerations indicate otherwise.

What counts as "relevant" is judged against the land use effects of the proposal, not against whether a person likes or dislikes the applicant. A matter can be material even if it is not raised by a specific policy - planning history, the character of an area, and cumulative impact are all capable of being material considerations in their own right.

The statutory starting point: section 38(6)

The development plan is not one consideration among many - it is the starting point. Section 38(6) of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, read with section 70(2) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, fixes the order of analysis: the application is determined in accordance with the plan unless material considerations indicate otherwise. The National Planning Policy Framework restates this at paragraph 48, and is explicit at paragraph 12 that the presumption in favour of sustainable development "does not change the statutory status of the development plan as the starting point for decision-making." Where an application conflicts with an up-to-date plan, permission should not usually be granted - and a council may only depart if material considerations in the particular case indicate the plan should not be followed.

In Wales the position is the same in law. Planning Policy Wales (Edition 12), paragraph 1.22 states that planning applications "must be determined in accordance with the adopted plan, unless material considerations indicate otherwise," citing the same section 38(6). PPW paragraph 1.18 frames it as a presumption in favour of sustainable development "in accordance with the development plan unless material considerations indicate otherwise."

The two limbs in practice: the plan, and everything else

Every decision therefore runs on two limbs: the development plan, and the other material considerations. The weight given to each is the real work of planning assessment.

The development plan limb includes the adopted local plan (or, in Wales, the Local Development Plan and, where relevant, the Strategic Development Plan and Future Wales 2040), plus any made neighbourhood plan. The NPPF is itself a material consideration: Annex 1, paragraph 231 says so expressly - "The policies in this Framework are material considerations which should be taken into account in dealing with applications." In Wales, PPW and the Technical Advice Notes occupy the equivalent national policy role.

The other-material-considerations limb is where the specific facts of the site come in: neighbour amenity, highways and access, design, heritage, ecology, flood risk, trees, and so on. The weight each carries is a matter of planning judgement, but that judgement has to be exercised in accordance with policy. NPPF paragraph 49 lets councils give weight to policies in emerging plans according to their stage of preparation, the extent of unresolved objections, and their consistency with the Framework - so even a draft local plan can attract weight, and a post-examination neighbourhood plan can carry significant weight.

Common material considerations

The matters that most often decide an application are well-trodden. The list below is not exhaustive, but it covers the ground that comes up in the majority of cases in England and Wales:

• Local plan and neighbourhood plan policies. The development plan itself. Adopted policies carry full weight; emerging policies carry weight under NPPF paragraph 49 according to their stage and consistency.
• National policy. The NPPF in England, PPW and the TANs in Wales. These frame how much weight specific issues - design, Green Belt, heritage, flood risk - should receive.
• Planning history and previous appeal decisions. A consistent run of appeal decisions on a similar proposal can be a material consideration, as can the planning history of the site itself.
• Neighbour amenity. Loss of light, outlook, privacy, and the impact of noise, odour or disturbance on existing occupiers. One of the most common reasons for refusal.
• Highways and access. Safe access, parking, and the effect on the local road network. The highway authority is a statutory consultee for a reason.
• Design. NPPF chapter 12 and PPW chapter 3 give significant weight to design quality. Poor design is, per the NPPF, a valid reason on its own to refuse.
• Heritage and conservation. The effect on listed buildings and conservation areas is a statutory consideration under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990, with "great weight" given to the conservation of a designated heritage asset (NPPF paragraph 212).
• Ecology and biodiversity net gain. Effect on protected species and designated sites, and, in England, the mandatory biodiversity net gain requirement.
• Flood risk. The sequential and exception tests in the NPPF, and TAN 15 in Wales, make flood risk a material consideration that can be decisive on vulnerable sites.
• Trees and landscape. Tree Preservation Orders, the effect on street trees, and the wider landscape and townscape impact.

The tilted balance (NPPF paragraph 11(d))

Where the policies that are most important for determining the application are out of date, the default in England shifts. NPPF paragraph 11(d) says that for decision-taking, where there are no relevant development plan policies, or the policies which are most important for determining the application are out-of-date, planning permission should be granted unless either a protected-area policy provides a strong reason for refusal, or the adverse impacts of doing so would significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits, assessed against the Framework as a whole.

This is the "tilted balance." It tilts the decision in favour of permission. Crucially, footnote 8 to paragraph 11 says that for applications involving the provision of housing, the most-important policies are treated as out-of-date where the local planning authority cannot demonstrate a five year supply of deliverable housing sites (with the appropriate buffer), or where the Housing Delivery Test shows delivery below 75% of the housing requirement over the previous three years. So a housing land supply shortfall does not just weaken the plan - it triggers the tilted balance, and the burden shifts to those opposing the scheme to show that the harms significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits.

Paragraph 232 adds a guard: existing plan policies are not out-of-date simply because they predate the current Framework - they are weighed by their degree of consistency with it. And for five years after a plan's adoption, where the authority can show a five year housing supply and passes the Housing Delivery Test, policies are not treated as out-of-date merely because up-to-date local housing need is higher than the adopted requirement.

Wales does not have an equivalent tilted balance. PPW paragraph 1.18 frames the presumption as one in favour of sustainable development "in accordance with the development plan" - the Welsh presumption is anchored to the adopted plan and is not triggered into a tilted position by a housing land supply shortfall in the way the NPPF's paragraph 11(d) is. The same section 38(6) statutory rule applies in both countries, but the policy gloss that tilts the balance in England when housing supply is short has no direct counterpart in PPW.

How Inspectors weigh considerations on appeal

On appeal, the same section 38(6) starting point applies, and the Inspector's job is to re-take the planning balance - not to defer to the council's view. An Inspector will identify the relevant policies, decide which are up to date and which are out of date, weigh the benefits of the proposal against the harms, and reach a reasoned conclusion. Where the tilted balance is engaged, the Inspector must apply it; where it is not, the standard balance under section 38(6) applies, and an up-to-date plan that the proposal conflicts with is a strong reason to dismiss.

Because appeal decisions turn on the weight given to specific material considerations, reading how Inspectors have weighed considerations for your council is one of the best ways to anticipate your own decision. See our Bristol appeal odds page for a worked example of how the balance plays out for one authority.

What is NOT a material consideration

Just as important is what you cannot rely on. The planning system is concerned with the use and development of land in the public interest - not with private grievances, civil arrangements, or the identity of the applicant. The following are generally not material considerations:

• Loss of a private view. There is no right to a view in planning law. Outlook and overshadowing can be material; a prized view over someone else's land is not.
• Covenants, restrictive covenants and easements. These are civil matters between landowners, not planning matters. The council will not enforce them.
• The applicant's character or identity. Who is applying is irrelevant; the use of the land is what matters.
• Commercial competition. PPW paragraph 1.19 is explicit that "it is not the function of the planning system to interfere with or inhibit competition between users of and investors in land" - a principle that applies on both sides of the border. "It will hurt my business" is not a planning objection.
• Private nuisance and boundary disputes. Whether a development constitutes a private nuisance is a civil law matter for the courts, not a planning consideration - though the amenity impacts (noise, disturbance) that underlie it can be material in their own right.
• Matters covered by other regimes. Building Regulations, licensing, environmental permitting and health and safety are generally handled separately and are not usually material to the planning decision.

The line is not always clean - the amenity impacts behind a "nuisance" objection are material even though the private nuisance itself is not - but the principle holds: if it does not relate to the use and development of land, it does not belong in the planning balance.

What to do before you apply

Because the decision is a structured weighing of the plan against material considerations, the most useful thing you can do before you file is work out, in advance, which considerations will apply to your site and how much weight each is likely to carry. That means reading your council's adopted local plan (or LDP in Wales), the made neighbourhood plan if there is one, and the relevant national policy - then mapping each policy and each site-specific issue onto your proposal.

This is exactly the work GapSense automates. It reads the development plan and national policy that will decide your application, surfaces the material considerations that apply to your site, and weighs each one - so you know, before you submit, where the balance is likely to land. Get started free, or read more on how it works.

Disclaimer: this guide is general information, not legal or planning advice, and reading it does not create any professional relationship. Planning law and national policy change, and vary between England and Wales. Always confirm the current position with the relevant legislation, your local planning authority, or a qualified planning consultant before making a decision.

Sources: the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, the National Planning Policy Framework (December 2024), and Planning Policy Wales (Edition 12). The statutory position reflects the consolidated legislation as at July 2026; always check the live legislation and your council's local position.