A section 106 planning obligation is a legal mechanism under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 that can secure planning obligations connected with development. It may be used alongside planning conditions where the relevant legal and policy tests are met.

A planning obligation does not make every planning harm acceptable. The authority must still assess the proposal as a whole against the development plan and other material considerations.

Sources and further information

UK Government - Planning practice guidance https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/planning-practice-guidance

Last checked: 25 September 2026

No. Conditions can make otherwise unacceptable development acceptable only where they satisfy the applicable legal and policy tests. They cannot be used as a substitute for resolving a fundamental problem that cannot properly be controlled by condition.

When commenting on proposed conditions, consider whether the requirement is precise, enforceable and capable of controlling the effect relied upon.

Sources and further information

UK Government - Planning practice guidance https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/planning-practice-guidance

Last checked: 25 September 2026

Use the six tests as an evidence checklist rather than merely naming them.

National planning guidance says every condition should be necessary, relevant to planning, relevant to the development, enforceable, precise and reasonable in all other respects.

Identify the harm the condition is intended to make acceptable.

If the authority could grant permission without the condition, ask why it is necessary. If permission would otherwise be unacceptable, test whether the condition genuinely resolves that problem.

Examine enforceability and precision together.

Record the trigger, required action, standard, approving body and consequence of non-compliance. If compliance cannot objectively be established, explain the practical enforcement problem.

Check conditions that depend on later schemes particularly carefully.

Deferred details can be appropriate, but a campaign can legitimately ask whether the authority has enough information at decision stage to know that the required solution is achievable.

Do not duplicate the broader question of whether conditions can cure every objection.

The existing Knowledge Base already addresses that principle. This article provides the practical test for examining the wording of an individual English condition.

Sources and further information

GOV.UK - Use of planning conditions

Last checked: 26 September 2026