Illegal development reports fall after PA removes anonymity

Complaints alleging illegal development fell by almost a third in 2025, after the Planning Authority made it mandatory for complainants to provide their contact details.

According to the PA’s annual report for 2025 the Planning Authority’s Enforcement Directorate received 1,679 reports of alleged illegal development. This represents a 30% decrease compared to 2024 and a nearly 32% decline compared to 2023.

The PA attributed the decline to the policy requiring complainants to identify themselves, saying this had “improved the quality of submissions” and allowed officers to communicate with complainants during investigations.

The change was introduced after the authority found that a substantial number of anonymous complaints in previous years resulted in no action because allegations were either unfounded or lacked sufficient details. Subsequently, investigators were unable to seek clarification from anonymous sources.

However, the annual report does not provide a direct comparison of the proportion of valid complaints before and after the introduction of the requirement.

In 2025, illegal development was identified in around half of the 1,972 complaints closed during the year. In 2023, when anonymous complaints accounted for half of all reports, illegal development was confirmed in 58% of cases, compared to around half of cases in 2024 and 2025 after the new requirement was introduced.

Where illegalities were confirmed in 2025, the PA said compliance was achieved in most cases without formal enforcement action.

Property owners submitted 466 sanctioning applications to regularise unauthorised works, while in 361 cases illegal development was voluntarily removed or rectified before further action was taken by the directorate.

During 2025, the authority also closed 226 pending enforcement cases accumulated from previous years. Of these, 103 were resolved through sanctioning or regularisation permits, while 72 were closed after illegal structures or works were removed by contraveners themselves.

New billing system

The PA also introduced a new system for billing daily fines linked to enforcement notices. The automated system, launched fully in the first quarter of 2025, allowed the directorate to take over responsibility for issuing invoices, a function previously shared with other sections of the authority.

All outstanding daily fines were invoiced during 2025, with the PA saying that from 2026 it would issue invoices every six months to provide greater transparency on accumulated fines and improve monitoring of outstanding payments.