Planning enforcement

Planning enforcement deals with and investigates any alleged reported breaches of planning.

 

What is a planning breach?

A breach in planning can be when any work is done without the right planning permission, or doesn’t meet conditions set when the planning permission was granted.

Planning enforcement can also investigate: 

• The change of use of land/buildings without planning consent
• Unauthorised building works
• Non-compliance with conditions attached to a planning permission
• Unauthorised works to statutorily listed buildings
• Any direct or indirect damage  or unauthorised works to protected trees. Please see our trees webpage for further details on protected trees
• Neglect to land or buildings which harm local amenity
• Display of unlawful advertisements

What Planning Enforcement cannot investigate

• Boundary wall disputes and other land ownership issues
• Legal covenants
• Devaluation of property
• Obstructions, parking and traffic
• Graffiti and anti-social behaviour
• Unsafe structures

 

More information on what is a planning breach

 

How to report a potential planning breach to us

Report it online

The simplest way to report a potential planning breach is by completing an online report form - you will need to register/login to your Redbridge account. This will allow us to keep you updated on the progress of the investigation.

Redbridge assesses all enforcement reports using our Prioritisation Strategy (PDF 3.66MB). This determines the potential harm caused by the alleged breach of planning, and how we will most effectively use our resources to investigate these.  

Any details submitted to the Council in relation to an enforcement report will be treated in the strictest confidence. The Council will not reveal the identity of the informant to an owner or responsible party(s).

Unfortunately we cannot accept telephone or anonymous reports.

 

Planning Enforcement and Direct Action Policy

The Planning Enforcement and Direct Action Policy (PDF 957KB) provides clear and transparent guidance on how the Council will deal with planning breaches.

The Policy provides guidance on how we will use ‘direct action’ to resolve long-standing planning breaches. Where appropriate, we will be able to enter land to correct a breach and this could involve demolition of unlawful structures.

In these instances the Council will seek to recover any costs incurred from the responsible parties. The option of this direct action will be used alongside prosecution and/or injunctions to resolve enforcement cases in a timely manner.

 

Planning Enforcement Register

Redbridge is currently working on a digital solution to providing a Planning Enforcement Register, our team hope to have this ready by summer 2024.  In the meantime, copies of all planning enforcement notices served in the last five years are available below.

Enforcement notices part 1 (15MB)

Enforcement notices part2 (15MB)