Explanatory note

This order amends the Town and Country Planning (New Towns) Special Development Order 1977 (“the 1977 order”). The 1977 order permits development of land in England and Wales within any area for the time being designated as the site of a new town, where the development is in accordance with proposals approved by the Secretary of State.

Where permission for development in a new town granted by the 1977 order is in force on the date on which the property of a development corporation is transferred to the Commission for the New Towns (“the transfer date”), the permission continues in force as if references in the order to the development corporation included the Commission (paragraph 3(3)(a) of Schedule 10 to the New Towns Act 1981).

The 1977 order, however, restricted the development powers of the Commission after the transfer date to two categories of case. The first is where a binding contract for the development by the development corporation had been entered into before that date and the second is where a development corporation had disposed of land to any person before the transfer date. This order removes these restrictions, thus enabling the Commission to undertake development itself and to authorise development by other persons, where the transfer date as respects a development corporation occurs after 15th November 1985.