Since April 2017, local planning authorities (LPAs) have had the power under the Town and Country Planning (Permission in Principle) Order 2017 (the PiP Regulations) to grant planning permission in principle for the development of sites listed on their registers of brownfield land.
An amendment to the PiP Regulations came into force on 1 June 2018, which extends the permission in principle regime in respect of small scale residential development.
This enables applicants to submit an overview of the proposed development and details of the specific site to the LPA with a view to obtaining a decision in principle that planning permission can be granted without the need for a detailed and costly full planning application. If successful, a technical details application must then be submitted within three years of the grant of the permission in principle.
The ability to obtain permission in principle by application has only been extended to minor development, meaning sites with fewer than ten houses, a site of less than one hectare or a building with less than 1000 square metres of floorspace. Despite the limitations, this amendment will be of interest to landowners looking to sell or promote smaller sites as they could now seek to do so with permission in principle in place, which should make sites more appealing to developers.