A new procedure enabling planning applications for ‘permission in principle’ for small-scale residential development is due to apply from 1 June 2018.  The legislation for the new procedure was originally published in December 2017 and further Government guidance is due later this year.

The political driver behind the legislation is to provide a cost effective incentive for developers and landowners to identify and make applications for residential development on potential sites to meet the demand for housing.  The aim is to provide a mechanism by which developers can establish certainty about the principle of a proposed development in terms of land use, location and amount of development, without needing to incur the significant costs associated with a full scale planning application.

If permission in principle is granted, a follow up application will be required for technical details consent, which will include the usual design considerations. This must be made within 3 years.

Developers will be able to make applications for permissions in principle for small-scale residential developments of land (i.e. sites with less than 10 houses, buildings with less than 1000 square metres of floor space or sites of less than 1 hectare). Development that would involve an environmental impact assessment or habitats assessment is excluded from the ‘in principle’ process.

The local authority has a period of five weeks to consider the application and to issue its decision. A developer can appeal a refusal of the application.

Local authorities will also include all sites with permissions in principle in their brownfield land register. At present the brownfield land register has two parts. Part 1 includes all brownfield sites that are suitable for housing and Part 2 includes sites for which the local authority has effectively allocated permission in principle of its own accord (following prescribed publicity, notification and consultation requirements being met).

A Part 3 will be added to the register on 1 June 2018 to include

  • permissions in principle allocated by the local authority
  • ‘live’ applications for permission in principle
  • ‘determined’ applications for permission in principle.

Application fees of £402 per 0.1 hectare of the site area are payable for any application for permission in principle in accordance with the latest amendments being made to The Town and Country Planning (Fees for Applications, Deemed Applications, Requests and Site Visits) (England) Regulations 2012.

The above article is published for information only and does not constitute specific legal advice. For more details or for specific advice please contact commprop@prettys.co.uk