UK Construction and Law

Two heritage bodies lose statutory consultee status while Sport England survives a 34,281 signature petition

By Staff Writer  |  18 August 2026

The government has published its response on reforming statutory consultees. The Gardens Trust and Theatres Trust are stripped of statutory status despite 77 per cent and 54 per cent opposition, Sport England is kept but its remit narrowed, and the four bodies that receive the most applications will have their referral criteria cut back. Regulations are still to come.

The response to the consultation on reforms to the statutory consultee system was published on 17 August 2026, alongside the new National Planning Policy Framework. The consultation itself ran for eight weeks from 18 November 2025 to 13 January 2026 and drew 1,606 responses, together with a petition carrying 34,281 names against removing Sport England and a separate campaign of 221 responses on playing fields.

The ministerial foreword sets out the diagnosis without much padding.

In far too many instances, statutory consultee engagement with planning applications is not proactive or proportionate, and advice and information provided is not timely or commensurate with what is necessary to make development acceptable in planning terms.

Matthew Pennycook, Minister of State for Housing and Planning

The foreword is no gentler about the other side of the exchange, recording that local planning authorities and developers too frequently provide inadequate or poor quality information, or make blanket and inappropriate referrals.

Who goes and who stays

Statutory consultee status is being removed from The Gardens Trust and Theatres Trust. In both cases the consultation ran heavily the other way. On The Gardens Trust, 1,392 respondents answered the question and 1,077 of them, 77 per cent, opposed removal against 85 in support. On Theatres Trust, 1,098 answered and 595, 54 per cent, opposed removal against 85 in support. The government has instead introduced a notification requirement so that both bodies continue to see relevant applications, without the duty to consult that carries a statutory response.

Sport England has been retained, on figures of the same shape. Of 1,294 respondents to the question on removing it, 1,035, 80 per cent, were opposed and 94 in support. Its remit is narrowed rather than left alone: it will continue to be consulted on development that leads to the loss of playing fields for housing or commercial development, and on substantial sports or school development on playing fields.

Four national statutory consultees that receive the highest volume of planning applications, Active Travel England, National Highways, Historic England and the Mining Remediation Authority, will have the reforms consulted on applied to their referral criteria. Respondents were more uncertain than hostile here. On National Highways, 939 answered and 63 per cent said they were unsure. On Active Travel England, 61 per cent of 934 respondents were unsure. On the Mining Remediation Authority's referral criteria, 76 per cent of 815 respondents were unsure, and 77 per cent of 791 were unsure about its role on the discharge of conditions.

What a developer should do about it now

Nothing changes at the counter this week. The response says regulations will follow in due course to bring the reforms into force, with support from the Planning Advisory Service to help authorities implement them. Until those regulations are made, the existing consultation duties stand, and an application submitted on the assumption that a body has already lost its status will be handled on the old basis.

The moratorium on creating new statutory consultees, announced in January 2025, is being maintained. A further consultation is promised on how a surcharge on planning application fees to support the largest statutory consultees would work, which is where the cost of all this eventually lands.

For anyone running a scheme touching a registered park or garden, a theatre, a playing field, a mining legacy area or the strategic road network, the practical point is the gap between announcement and commencement. Two bodies have been told they are losing a statutory role that they still hold. Advice given in that window is still advice a decision maker has to consider, and a consent granted without it is still open to challenge.