Class (E) Not Dismissed

The Court of Appeal handed down the long anticipated judgment, on 20 December 2021, on the appeal bought by Rights: Community: Action (RCA), on whether the changes bought forward in 2020, to the Use Classes Order (UCO) and the Permitted Development Rights (PDR) regime were unlawful.

The Court of Appeal held that the 'radical' changes to UCO and the PDR regime were in fact lawful and thus remains in place.

The RCA challenged the Divisional Court's decision on the basis that "the Divisional Court erred in its conclusion that the new Statutory Instruments were not required to be subject to Strategic Environmental Assessments as they did not set the framework for future development consents of projects or modify an existing framework for future development consent of projects".