Permitted Development

Reviewing and Extending Permitted Development Rights

We are carrying out a substantial review of permitted development rights that are granted by the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (Scotland) Order 1992 (as amended).  Permitted development rights remove the need to apply for planning permission in relation to developments and circumstances specified in the legislation.

In December 2020, we laid a development order in the Scottish Parliament which introduces new and extended permitted development rights from 1 April 2021 in relation to priority development types:

• digital telecommunications infrastructure
• agricultural development
• peatland restoration
• development related to active travel
• aquaculture

This guidance note explains the permitted development rights - PDF (394kB) included in the development order.

These changes have been prioritised to help support Scotland’s green recovery and deliver key priorities, including tackling climate change and supporting remote and rural communities.    They will implement the first phase of our review of permitted development rights, following on from a public consultation in autumn 2020.

Sustainability Appraisal:

A Sustainability Appraisal was previously conducted into options for 16 development types and we followed that with a public consultation last winter on a detailed delivery programme.

Programme for extending permitted development rights in Scotland: non-technical summary - PDF (159.3kB)

Programme for extending permitted development rights in Scotland: full report - PDF (5.3MB) 

Consultation: Proposed programme for reviewing and extending permitted development rights (PDR) in Scotland and consultation analysis report