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Section 171B: Time limits.

Town and Country Planning Act 1990 · 1990 c. 8View on legislation.gov.uk

Part VII: Enforcement

Where there has been a breach of planning control consisting in the carrying out without planning permission of building, engineering, mining or other operations in, on, over or under land, no enforcement action may be taken after the end of the period of—

in the case of a breach of planning control in England, ten years beginning with the date on which the operations were substantially completed, and
in the case of a breach of planning control in Wales, four years beginning with the date on which the operations were substantially completed.

Where there has been a breach of planning control consisting in the change of use of any building to use as a single dwellinghouse, no enforcement action may be taken after the end of the period of—

in the case of a breach of planning control in England, ten years beginning with the date of the breach, and
in the case of a breach of planning control in Wales, four years beginning with the date of the breach.

There is no restriction on when enforcement action may be taken in relation to a breach of planning control in respect of relevant demolition (within the meaning of section 196D).

In the case of any other breach of planning control, no enforcement action may be taken after the end of the period of ten years beginning with the date of the breach.

The preceding subsections do not prevent—

the service of a breach of condition notice in respect of any breach of planning control if an enforcement notice in respect of the breach is in effect; or
taking further enforcement action in respect of any breach of planning control if, during the period of four years ending with that action being taken, the local planning authority have taken or purported to take enforcement action in respect of that breach.

About this text

This legislation text comes from legislation.gov.uk. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. These source and reuse terms cover the legislation text, not Remedy's commentary.

Reuse reviewed 21 August 2026 under Open Government Licence v3.0.