From 31 October 2026, the new National Scheme of Delegation will make officer decision-making the default across English local authorities, significantly narrowing the circumstances in which applications can go to planning committee.
For developers and investors, the direction of travel is clear: fewer committee decisions, less scope for local political intervention and, potentially, faster and more predictable outcomes.
What is changing?
Applications will fall into two broad categories.
Schedule 1 applications must be determined by officers and cannot generally be referred to committee (unless the council has an interest). This includes many routine applications, such as minor development, condition discharges, prior approvals, non-material amendments and a wide range of reserved matters and section 73 applications relating to a schedule 1 permission.
Schedule 2 applications are also presumed to be determined by officers, but can still go to committee if the “gateway test” is met. Broadly, the application must raise either:
a significant local economic, social or environmental issue; or
a significant planning matter having regard to the development plan and other material considerations.
The accompanying guidance states that an application which broadly complies with a detailed site allocation and relevant policy is unlikely, without more, to raise a significant planning matter. The same is true where a statutory consultee’s concern has been addressed through amendments to the scheme (unless there are compelling reasons to take a different view). That should make it harder to justify committee referral simply because an application is locally controversial.
Meeting the gateway test does not automatically mean a committee decision. Both the nominated officer and committee member must agree to referral. If they cannot agree, the application must be determined by officers.
Crucially, councillors will no longer have a general ability to “call in” an application to committee and local rules requiring committee consideration simply because a certain number of objections have been received will also fall away.
Authorities will need to bring their constitutions and delegation arrangements into line with the national scheme. The guidance is blunt about the consequences: a committee decision on an application which should have been delegated may be vulnerable to judicial review and could be quashed.
Why does this matter?
In practice, most applications are already determined by officers. The real change is therefore not that officers will suddenly be making planning decisions, but that there will be far less scope for applications to be pulled into committee because of local opposition or political pressure.
For developers and investors, that should mean greater consistency and certainty across authorities, with fewer applications exposed to the delay and political uncertainty of the committee process.
Perhaps the biggest practical change is the loss of the member call-in and automatic referral based on objection thresholds. For controversial but policy-compliant development, that could materially change the dynamics of the application process.
How can this process be managed?
Committees are not disappearing. For major or contentious schemes, the key question will increasingly be whether the gateway test is triggered. Applicants should therefore be thinking about committee risk much earlier in the planning process.
The practical message is simple: front-load the policy case, deal clearly with statutory consultee concerns and engage early with officers. The stronger the evidence that a scheme accords with the development plan and that technical concerns have been resolved, the harder it should be to justify committee referral simply because the application is locally controversial.
For live applications, applicants should also check how the relevant authority is updating its constitution and referral process. The new rules will apply to applications already in the system once the regime takes effect, so the route to determination may change before a decision is issued.
If you would like to discuss how the new National Scheme of Delegation could affect a live or upcoming development, please get in touch with Katie Kempthorne, Head of Planning.
