Chapter 4: Grant and Implementation of Planning Permission Chapter 5: Enforcement of Planning Controls Section 121: Power to provide relief from enforcement of planning conditions Background
Part 7 of the TCPA 1990 sets out the enforcement measures which can be used by local planning authorities and the Secretary of State when breaches of planning control occur. Whether to take enforcement action in response to breaches of planning control is at the discretion of the local planning authority.
	Since March 2020, local planning authorities have been encouraged to be flexible in terms of enforcement action of non-compliance with conditions imposed on grants of planning permission which govern construction working hours and delivery hours in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and then later to address the acute shortage of Heavy Goods Vehicles. Measures to support this were introduced through section 16 of the Business and Planning Act 2020 (modification of conditions relating to construction working hours) and then through a series of Written Ministerial Statements.
	This section inserts a new section into the TCPA 1990 which grants a new power (that can only be exercised for certain purposes) for the Secretary of State to provide, by regulations, that a local planning authorities in England, may not take, or is subject to specific restrictions in how it may take, relevant enforcement measures against a developer or individual for non-compliance with specified planning conditions or limitations for a specified period of relief of not more than one year.