[altacc]

As I said elsewhere, planning permission has been required since 1948 and so is by no means a new thing. Restrictive planning rules are a constant for architects & developers. Even the permitted development rules can be quite restrictive and wouldn't apply to this development. The 2017 law change is a moot point as the building was demolished in 2015.

There was no "forcing someone to perform labor". The owner of the development company was not required to physically rebuild himself, there was a requirement to make good what they had willfully damaged. If you willfully damage someone else's property is it involuntary labour for legal redress to force you to pay to repair to replace what you damaged? The obvious answer is no, you're facing a financial, not physical, penalty.