Section 180 of the Planning and Development Act 2000 provides that a local authority may take an estate in charge by initiating the procedures under section 11 of the Roads Act 1993 to take a road in charge. Where, in compliance with section 180 of the Act, the local authority makes an order declaring a road to be a public road, it must also take in charge any open spaces, car parks, sewers, watermains, or drains within the attendant grounds of the development.
In order to ensure that estates are completed satisfactorily, sections 34(4)(g) and 180(2)(b) of the Planning Act provide that a planning authority may attach a condition to a planning permission requiring the giving of adequate security for the satisfactory completion of a development, and, if the development is not subsequently completed satisfactorily, may apply the security to that satisfactory completion.
Where an estate is not completed by a developer, the Planning Act has strengthened and simplified the enforcement powers available to planning authorities. Among these powers, planning authorities are entitled to refuse to grant planning permission, subject to the consent of the High Court, to any developer who has substantially failed to comply with a previous permission.
Under section 180 of the Planning Act planning authorities must take an unfinished estate in charge, where so requested by the majority of qualified electors who own or occupy the houses in the development, if enforcement proceedings have not been commenced by the planning authority within seven years of the permission for the development expiring.