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This blog is for the primary benefit of landowners and those not particularly familiar with the planning system. It explains two important enabling routes for securing the principle of residential development by way of Permission in Principle (PiP) and the use of Brownfield Registers. It also examines Permission in Principle within the context of major development for industry professionals. This article purely focuses on residential development opportunities.
Planning in Principle
Planning in Principle (PiP) is an alternative way of obtaining planning permission for housing-led development which separates the consideration of matters of principle for proposed development from the technical detail of the development. It can be a useful way of limiting upfront costs associated with an Outline planning application that requires fairly substantial technical work to be undertaken.
The permission in principle consent route has 2 stages: the first stage (or permission in principle stage) establishes whether a site is suitable in-principle and the second (‘technical details consent’) stage is when the detailed development proposals are assessed.
Although there is an increasing emphasis on producing technical work which needs to be undertaken with any site - even at the promotion stage - it is a way of obtaining a principle for development relatively easily with the technical consent phase coming later on. With the principle secured, greater confidence for technical work expenditure can be achieved.
Quite simply, a PiP is a great tool in the armoury in order to progress smaller sites (i.e. not a so-called ‘major application’ which is commonly less than 10 dwellings, a total development of under 1,000 square metres and a site of under 1 hectare.
Major development sits outside of the scope of PiP, unless the site is entered into Part 2 of the brownfield land register. The two can therefore be related to one another.
Brownfield Registers
The Brownfield Register is a public register maintained by Local Planning Authorities for previously developed (brownfield) land.
There are two parts to it. Part 1 comprises all sites that an LPA has assessed as being appropriate for residential development. This includes all types of sites with or without planning permission and Permission in Principle.
Part 2 is an allied document where the LPA has decided that the land would be suitable for the grant of permission in principle including residential development. Crucially, new sites can be added to Part 2 at any time, subject to public consultation procedures being carried out where appropriate to do so. Outline or full planning permission can be granted for those sites in Part 2.
All told, both PiP and the brownfield register can be useful enablers for residential development.
PiP and Major Development
Looking at the larger scale of development, within the Government’s Briefing Paper (no. 8981 dated 12 January 2021) ‘Planning for the Future: planning policy changes in England in 2020 and future reforms’ there is the acknowledgement that clear steps have been taken in potentially extending the Permission in Principle to major development. The Government argues that this will help SMEs and it is certainly something that SSL agrees would be a positive step.
The Paper states at Para 95 that more sites will be able to come forward and “We envisage that a change of this kind will particularly benefit small and medium-sized developers who tend to focus on building smaller major developments. It will reduce their upfront planning costs and provide certainty quickly about the principle of development”.
The Briefing Paper states that were Permission in Principle to be introduced for major development, the aim is to amend the Regulations by Autumn 2021. They will then come into force by the end of the year if everything runs smoothly. It is very much a case of 'watch this space'.
The new route of PiP could be significant with 84% of all planning applications for residential development being for schemes of 10- 150 homes and which deliver 46% of new housing development each year. Perhaps this is a way of truly helping to meet housing need?
One further idea connected with this could be that PiP is applied to the site allocation process within a Local Plan. With detailed technical evidence now accompanying most site allocations, is this an unnecessary duplication of the process, or a helpful advancement that supplements site allocations in order to more quickly secure planning permission?
SSL welcomes your thoughts! Please look out for our next blog which is about the Planning Reform Package.
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