Permitted development rights and commercial developers

That this House notes with concern the growing practice of experienced commercial developers conducting full-scale operations on sites without prior planning permission, relying on the permitted development regime to avoid the requirement for consent; recognises that this practice causes serious harm to residential communities, including noise, pollution, increased traffic and loss of amenity; is alarmed that retrospective planning applications in such cases are frequently allowed to remain undetermined by local planning authorities for periods well in excess of statutory target timeframes, leaving affected residents without recourse or certainty; acknowledges press reports suggesting this is a widespread national problem affecting communities across the United Kingdom; calls on the Government to review the scope and application of permitted development rights with a view to preventing their exploitation by commercial developers acting in bad faith; and further calls on the Government to strengthen local planning authority enforcement powers and to introduce clear statutory timeframes for the determination of retrospective applications.