Oxford Street planning powers transfer on 10 August

If you've ever tried to read a statutory instrument, you'll know the feeling: page after page of cross-references, while the real change is hidden in a few lines. In the legislation.gov.uk text of the Oxford Street Development Corporation (Functions) Order 2026, the key dates are 14 July 2026, when it was made, 16 July 2026, when it was laid before Parliament, and 10 August 2026, when it comes into force. For most readers, the useful question is not which subsection was cited, but who will now make planning decisions on Oxford Street. The short answer is that, from 10 August, many of those powers move from the borough councils to the Oxford Street Development Corporation.

The Corporation was created by a separate 2025 Order for a Mayoral development area covering Oxford Street and surrounding land in Camden and the City of Westminster. This new Order does not create the body; it hands over planning functions to it. Like many statutory instruments, it technically extends to England and Wales, but its real-world effect is this London development area. **What this means:** from 10 August 2026, the Corporation becomes the local planning authority for the area for the main planning functions in Part 3 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. In plain English, if you are dealing with many planning matters inside the designated zone, the Corporation becomes the main public body in charge.

This is wider than ordinary planning permission. The Order also passes across related functions under planning law, listed building law and some electricity infrastructure provisions. The legal drafting is heavy, but the practical point is simple: the Corporation is being given a large share of the tools that planning authorities use to manage development. That matters because planning is not only about approving or refusing schemes. It also involves notices, certificates, consultations, approvals, determinations and the paperwork that keeps a case moving. So this Order shifts both the headline power and much of the process underneath it.

The clearest rule is about live applications. If an application for planning permission, permission in principle, or a related consent, certificate, approval or determination was sent to a borough council before 10 August 2026 but has not been decided by that date, the borough must pass it to the Corporation. The applicant must be notified, and the application is treated as received by the Corporation on the day it is transferred. **What this means:** an undecided case does not drop into a gap. It carries on, but under a different authority. The Order also says the Corporation does not have to reissue planning documents just because responsibility has moved, so existing consultation or publicity does not automatically start again. There is one major exception: if the Secretary of State has called in an application, the previous authority stays in place for that case for the purposes of the referral and any inquiry.

The same careful approach appears in enforcement. If a borough has already issued an enforcement notice, a temporary stop notice, a breach of condition notice, a tree replacement notice, a listed building enforcement notice or similar action before 10 August 2026, that borough usually keeps control of that specific action until its legal life runs out. The Order applies the same thinking to other notices dealing with untidy land, advertisements and some graffiti or defacement powers. This may sound technical, but it prevents a messy reset. **What this means:** the council that started an enforcement action normally sees it through until the compliance period ends or the notice stops having effect. If you own land, occupy a property or are following a dispute in the area, that continuity matters.

Appeals follow the same line. If someone appeals against a decision, a notice, or a failure to make a decision that happened before 10 August 2026, the previous authority remains the local planning authority for that appeal. That applies whether the case is going to the Secretary of State, the magistrates' court or the Upper Tribunal. The Corporation can be told about the appeal and can send in representations, but it does not step into the borough's shoes halfway through. Money follows the original actor too. Where compensation rights arise because of action taken by a borough before the transfer date, liability stays with that borough. The same can apply where the Secretary of State later makes a determination or order tied to a pre-transfer planning action. If you are trying to work out who might pay, the Order points you back to the authority that held the power when the relevant step was taken.

There is another important line on section 106 planning obligations. These are the legal promises attached to development, such as contributions, works or restrictions that developers agree in connection with permission. If an existing section 106 obligation relates to land in the development area and names one of the previous authorities as the body that can enforce it, the Order says the Corporation can enforce it after the transfer. **What this means:** those obligations do not disappear when the planning authority changes. The promise stays in place; only the public body with the power to enforce it changes. So if you are tracking whether a developer must still do something promised as part of a scheme near Oxford Street, the answer is yes, and the Corporation may now be the body chasing compliance.

The bigger lesson is that this Order is about control, continuity and clarity, not about approving a particular redevelopment by itself. It does not give automatic permission to build, nor does it rewrite every planning rule for Oxford Street overnight. What it does is place the Oxford Street Development Corporation at the centre of the planning system for this area from 10 August 2026, while preserving the boroughs' role in many cases that are already underway. The explanatory note adds that no full regulatory impact assessment was prepared because the Government did not expect significant effects on the private, voluntary or public sectors. Even so, the administrative change is real. If your case starts before 10 August, its history matters. If it starts on or after 10 August, the Corporation is likely to be the first door you knock on.