Breach of planning controls

What can I report?

Planning enforcement primarily deals with breaches of planning controls, where:

  • works are undertaken without planning permission;
  • where planning conditions are not complied with; or,
  • where the use is changed without planning permission.

How do I report it?

You can report an alleged breach of planning controls using the link to the form below. Initially you will be asked to create a MyAccount (if you don't already have one) which will enable you to track progress of your application.

Report a breach of planning

Planning breaches you can report

Some of the alleged planning breaches you can report include:

  • residential extensions without planning permission
  • advertisements displayed without permission
  • illegal works to listed buildings, protected trees, or in conservation areas
  • developments affecting road safety
  • contamination
  • land use adversely affecting amenity
  • untidy sites

You can search the online planning register to see if a planning application has been made for a particular development.

What information should I provide?

Make sure you give us as much information as possible, including:

  • the address of the property or building of the alleged breach
  • the owner or the occupier of the site (if known)
  • details of any problems of the alleged breach including when the activity started (if known)
  • your name, address and contact number

The details you provide us with are kept confidential and are not made known to the person who carried out the breach. If however you choose to remain anonymous we respect your rights, but we will be unable to provide you with any further information on the process or outcome of the investigations.

Anonymous complaints

We do not normally investigate an anonymous complaint unless we consider the information of the complaint to warrant urgent attention, such as potential threat to a listed building or protected trees. In cases like this we will use our discretion on whether anonymous complaints will be investigated.

What shouldn't I report?

We won't investigate:

We also won't get involved with investigations of land ownership, boundary disputes or neighbour disputes.

For more information visit: GOV.UK: Ensuring effective enforcement