After the decision: appeals and legal challenges

Last updated: 2 July 2025

For a local community, the refusal of a planning application for a potentially damaging development is often a cause for celebration. However, the fight might not be over yet as the applicant has a right to appeal the decision. 

If a local planning authority (LPA) refuses to grant planning permission for a development, the applicant can appeal against that refusal. The applicant can also appeal against conditions imposed on a planning permission, if they are not happy with them, or if the LPA does not make a decision on a planning application within the statutory determination period (usually eight or 13 weeks, depending on the type of application). 

Appeals must be made within six months of the decision (or within 12 weeks if it relates to a householder application). 

There is also a right of appeal against other planning decisions including advertisement consent, listed building consent and planning enforcement notices. Different time periods for appealing will apply, depending on the type of planning decision. 

In England and Wales, interested parties (also known as third parties) such as the general public cannot appeal against a planning decision. They can only participate in an applicant’s appeal against the refusal of a planning application. 

The Planning Inspectorate deals with appeals on behalf of the Secretary of State for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. However, the Secretary of State has the power to decide an appeal instead of a planning inspector – this is known as a recovered appeal – but they only do so in a small percentage of cases, which tend to be the very large or controversial development proposals. 

There are three types of appeal procedure: written representations, hearings and inquiries.

Most planning appeals are decided by the written representations procedure. With this procedure the Inspector considers written evidence from the appellant (the person making the appeal), the LPA and anyone else who has an interest, and will also visit the appeal site. 

The Planning Inspectorate conducts hearings in-person with participants being physically present at a venue (eg a council office or town hall) or ‘virtually’ where participants connect remotely to an online video conference.  

A hearing is a round table discussion led by a planning inspector who identifies the issues to be discussed based on the evidence received and any representations made. The appellant and LPA must send their statements of case to the Planning Inspectorate before the hearing is held. A site visit will be carried out as part of the hearing process.  

An inquiry is the most formal of the appeal procedures, because it usually involves larger or more complicated appeals. These are often cases where expert evidence is presented, and witnesses are cross-examined (questioned). An inquiry may last for several days, or even weeks. It is not a court of law, but the proceedings will often seem to be quite similar, and participants are often represented by a legal professional.  

An award of costs is where one party in an appeal (eg, the appellant or LPA) is required to pay either the full or partial costs of another party. Costs are awarded when one party has acted unreasonably, and that unreasonable behaviour has directly cost the other party money. Examples of unreasonable behaviour could be missing deadlines, introducing new reasons for refusal or new grounds of appeal at a late stage, or providing information that is clearly false or inaccurate. Costs are generally only awarded in very limited circumstances. Applications for costs are considered as part of the appeal process. 

If the Planning Inspectorate accepts the appeal, the LPA will inform any person who was notified or consulted about the original application, and any other person who commented on the application, that an appeal is taking place.  

Interested parties have the right to send representations about an appeal to the Planning Inspectorate, regardless of whether or not they had previously commented on the application. 

Hearings and inquiries are open to members of the public and local people are encouraged to take part as local knowledge and opinion can often be a valuable addition to the evidence given by the appellant and the LPA. However, those wanting to participate or have a say in the appeal (rather than just observe) must have registered an interest beforehand. 

Community groups, parish councils and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) wishing to play an active part in an inquiry may want to register as a rule 6 party. Being granted rule 6 status means you are considered a main party which brings certain benefits (eg, receiving copies of the documents sent to the other main parties and being able to cross examine other parties). It is unusual for rule 6 status to be granted to individuals, as the Planning Inspectorate prefers participants with similar views to form a group to avoid duplication.  

There is no requirement for anyone to be legally represented at an inquiry, however the main parties usually have an advocate representing them (usually a solicitor or barrister who present the evidence and cross examine the opposing party’s witnesses).  

Interested parties can also take part in an inquiry on a called-in planning application or a recovered appeal (those applications/appeals that the Secretary of State takes over from the LPA/Planning Inspectorate to deal with) in the same way as for standard appeal cases. 

If you would prefer to just submit a single written representation to an appeal and don’t wish to actively participate in the appeal hearing or inquiry, you can do so by the first deadline without needing to register. Do make sure that you review the appellant's statement of case (which will be published alongside the other application documents on the LPA’s website) to understand their reasons for appealing their planning decision. This will help you in preparing your response. 

There are some types of appeal that third parties are not allowed to participate in, eg householder, advertisement consent and minor commercial appeals. In these cases, representations from interested parties made at the application stage will be provided to the Inspector by the LPA but no new representations will be considered.  

An interested party can seek the help of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, who deals with complaints about the conduct of a council, such as them not following proper planning procedures. However, the Ombudsman does not deal with complaints about the specific details or merits of a planning application.  

There are options available for interested parties to legally challenge the decision of a planning inspector or an LPA – known as statutory challenges or judicial reviews. However, these legal processes can only cover the way in which a decision was made rather than the specifics or merits of the planning application or the LPA’s decision. Read on for more detail on these processes.  

A legal challenge to an appeal decision of a planning inspector or the Secretary of State (and some other very specific types of planning decision) can be made under Section 288 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. This statutory challenge can be made by the appellant or by a third party who can show they have sufficient interest in the appeal decision. The grounds for this statutory challenge are that a serious mistake or procedural flaw occurred which helped lead to the decision made by the inspector or the Secretary of State.  

A statutory challenge must be made by application to the High Court within six weeks of the date of the decision in question (which is usually the date that the LPA publishes the decision notice on its website). 

Other planning decisions, such as the grant of planning permission by an LPA, may be challenged by way of a judicial review. As with statutory challenges, this process involves an application to the High Court for permission to proceed and is also restricted to serious mistakes or procedural flaws. To be successful, a judicial review must demonstrate that the decision was unlawful, irrational, unreasonable or unfair and (crucially) if it had not been taken there is a strong chance that there would have been a different outcome for the claimant (the person challenging the decision). 

However, it is important to note, a judicial review is not a re-run of the rights and wrongs of the decision (the ‘merits’) but a review of processes and procedures by which the decision was made.  

Significantly, judicial review is the only way that a third-party objector can challenge the grant of planning permission by an LPA.  

A judicial review of a planning decision must be started by an application to the High Court within six weeks of the date of the decision in question.   

However, before that application can be made, judicial review is subject to what is known as a pre-action protocol. This encourages the person considering a judicial review to first set out their complaint in writing to the public body concerned, with adequate time for a response before the 6-week deadline. This gives the body concerned an opportunity to explain why its decision was lawful, or to amend or reverse its decision where it concedes that an error has been made. In some cases, this enables the claimant to achieve their objectives without incurring heavy legal costs. 

Both the statutory challenge to an appeal decision and a judicial review of a planning decision are subject to strict legal procedures.Formal legal representation is strongly recommended. Such cases are usually lengthy, time-consuming and costly. Therefore, it is important for anyone considering such legal action to seek professional advice on whether it’s likely to be worthwhile. Given the very short deadlines involved, you should seek legal advice as soon as possible after becoming aware of the decision you may wish to challenge. 

Government guidance – planning appeals 

Government guidance – taking part in an appeal 

Government guidance – called-in decisions and recovered appeals