Town and Country Planning Act 1947

The Town and Country Planning Act 1947 (10 & 11 Geo. VI c. 51) was an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom passed by the post-war Labour government. It came into effect on 1 July 1948, and along with the Town and Country Planning Act 1947 was the foundation of modern town and country planning in the United Kingdom.

The most fundamental requirement of the legislation was to establish that planning permission was required for land development; ownership alone no longer conferred the right to develop the land. To control this, the Act reorganised the planning system from the 1,400 existing planning authorities to 145 (formed from county and borough councils), and required them all to prepare a comprehensive development plan.

These local authorities were given wide-ranging powers in addition to approval of planning proposals; they could carry out redevelopment of land themselves, or use compulsory purchase orders to buy land and lease it to private developers. They were also given powers to control outdoor advertising, and to preserve woodland or buildings of architectural or historic interest - the latter the beginning of the modern listed building system.

The Act provided that all development values were vested in the state, with £300,000,000 set aside for compensation of landowners. Any land would be purchased by a developer at its existing-use value; after permission to develop was granted, the developer would be assessed a "development charge" based on the...
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