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Informational only. Not planning advice. The council's sealed decision notice remains the legal document.

Nearly every UK planning permission includes a time-limit condition: development must be begun within a stated period. Outline permissions add a separate clock to submit reserved matters. This guide reads the wording patterns — not whether your site works count as commencement.

Standard full-permission wording

Typical compliance-only pattern:

The development hereby permitted shall be begun before the expiration of three years from the date of this permission.

Statutory default for many grants follows Town and Country Planning Act 1990 s91 themes — read the sealed notice date as the usual clock start. DecisionBrief classifies this as compliance-only timing (no discharge gateway on the wording alone) — see condition timing guide.

Outline permission — two clocks

• Clock 1: Submit reserved matters within X years (often three) from outline decision.
• Clock 2: Begin development within Y years of RM approval (often two) — or a combined outer limit from outline date. Read both lines on the notice.

See outline vs full vs reserved matters for how condition sets interact.

Bespoke time limits

Councils sometimes insert one-year, two-year, or five-year limits for retail, infrastructure, or phased schemes. Do not assume three years — quote the printed number and date anchor.

What “begun” means — literacy only

Published materials refer to a material operation on site (often foundations or demolition) as commencement. Mobilisation, discharge submissions alone, or setting out without works may not suffice — but DecisionBrief does not advise on specific cases. Instruct a planning consultant or solicitor if commencement risk is live.

Reading checklist

1. Locate the time-limit condition — often the final numbered condition or a standard template paragraph.
2. Note the anchor date — “date of this permission” vs committee date if stated differently.
3. Separate outline RM clock from commencement clock if both appear.
4. Flag as compliance-only in your programme — unlike pre-commencement discharge conditions.

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