Over 269,000 enforcement actions taken for Brits failing to comply with planning permission laws

New data shows a total of 269,525 enforcement actions have been issued between 2000 and 2025 for Brits failing to comply with planning permission laws.

The Property Buying Company has analysed the latest planning application statistics published by The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to determine whether the number of enforcement actions taken are increasing, as well as the local planning authorities which have taken enforcement action the most.

With 10,016 enforcement actions taking place in 2025, this is nearly a 25% increase from 2022 figures, where 7,591 enforcement actions took place.

Figures from 2020 and 2021 show significantly lower numbers of enforcement actions taken too, which could be attributed to a number of factors during the pandemic such as fewer developments taking place, less complaints reported and a reduced council capacity in order to prioritise essential services.

This is the first time the number of enforcement actions has exceeded four figures since 2017.

Number of planning permission enforcement actions by year (2000-2025)

In terms of the type of enforcement actions, the highest number was for enforcement notices, standing at 118,213 between 2000 and 2025. An enforcement notice is issued by a local planning authority when there has been a breach of planning control, such as unauthorised building works, and this needs to be rectified.

Following this is planning contravention notices, with 117,865 issued over the past 25 years. A planning contravention notice is a tool used by local planning authorities to request information, typically when there has been a complaint regarding works being carried out without permission.

The third most common enforcement action taken is a breach of condition notice, with 23,233 being issued between 2000 and 2025. A breach of condition notice is issued by local planning authorities when a condition attached to approved planning permission is not being met.

Number of planning permission enforcement actions by type (2000-2025)
Type of enforcement actions
Number of enforcement actions
Enforcement notices
118,213
Planning contravention notices
117,865
Breach of conditions notices
23,233
Temporary stop notices
5,297
Stop notices
3,396
Enforcement injunctions granted
1,291
Injunctive applications refused
134
Enforcement warning notices
96
Analysing all local planning authorities, The Property Buying Company found 278 local planning authorities which recorded a full dataset for enforcement actions between 2000 and 2025. Local planning authorities which did not hold a full comparable dataset for this time period have been excluded from the following ranking.

The Property Buying Company found that Brent local planning authority has taken the highest number of enforcement actions, standing at 6,345.

This is followed by Birmingham local planning authority, with 5,895 enforcement actions, and Westminster local planning authority with 4,808 enforcement actions.