Planning conditions and the six tests

Planning conditions are requirements attached to a planning permission. They often control details that matter to nearby buyers, such as approved drawings, materials, obscure glazing, boundary screening, tree protection, parking, noise limits, operating hours, construction management and drainage.

Conditions must meet six national tests. They should be necessary, relevant to planning, relevant to the development, enforceable, precise and reasonable in all other respects. A condition that fails these tests should not be imposed. For a buyer, the key question is not simply whether permission was granted. It is whether the conditions actually control the risks that affect daily life near the property.

Planning conditions are legally enforceable requirements imposed on a planning permission to make a development acceptable in planning terms. The six tests require conditions to be necessary, relevant to planning, relevant to the development, enforceable, precise and reasonable.

• GOV.UK: Use of planning conditions


• GOV.UK: Determining a planning application


• Planning Advisory Service: Effective use of conditions