12 COMMENT THE INDUSTRY ADVOCATE
Brian Berry of the Federation of Master Builders (FMB)
PERMISSION IN PRINCIPLE: THUMBS UP (IN PRINCIPLE)
Brian Berry of the Federation of Master Builders (FMB) explores the advantages of the new ‘Permission in Principle’ route to planning permission
ou may not yet be aware, but since June 2018 a new route to planning permission – ‘Permission in Principle’ – has been avail- able for housing developments of fewer than 10 units. Permission in Principle (PiP) is designed to separate the consideration of the ‘principle of development’ (i.e. ‘is this site suitable for new housing?’) from decisions around the technical detail of the development (i.e. ‘are the specific details of a proposed development suitable for this site and in accordance with local policies?’). As such, this is a two stage process to full planning permission. A PiP application consists of a two-page form containing basic information about the site, a plan which identifies the site in question, and a fee. The statutory time limit for PiP applications to be determined is five weeks. The grant of PiP will last for three years, during which time a developer will need to apply for a ‘Technical Details Consent’ (TDC) to convert this into a full planning permission. The focus of PiP is strictly limited to location, land use and amount of development. All other matters are dealt with at the TDC stage.
Y PiP is a tool which has been designed to fulfil
a number of different purposes. It is also avail- able to be applied to any site on the Brownfield Register to encourage the development of those sites identified as suitable for housing. The Housing and Planning Act 2016 also allows for PiPs to be automatically placed on all sites allocated within local and neighbourhood plans, but this is yet to come into effect and appears to
have been shelved for the time being. However, we believe that for many house- builders and developers, it is the new application route for smaller sites which might prove to be one of the most beneficial changes to the planning system in recent years. The aim of this new route is to reduce the upfront costs and hassle involved in getting an ‘in principle’ decision, thereby reducing some of the risks involved in planning and allowing greater investment in the technical details process, once the principle has been established. We know that one of the greatest obstacles facing many house builders is the probative risk involved in bringing forward planning applica- tions, and that risk and cost are often hugely disproportionate on the smallest sites. Outline planning permission was originally meant to provide a means of managing these risks, but over time even obtaining an outline permission has come to involve the submission of large amounts of information and detailed pre-appli- cation discussions, creating significant upfront cost in return for an uncertain outcome. Many smaller housebuilders are unable to spread these risks over a numbers of sites and different applications. SME housebuilders are likely to be financing applications through their own funds or private loans and so the risk of investing in a planning application and not receiving permission can be quite prohibitive. PiP is intended to address precisely these risks and is designed to be closer to an old-fashioned
Continued on page 14
WE BELIEVE THAT FOR MANY HOUSEBUILDERS AND DEVELOPERS, IT IS THE NEW APPLICATION ROUTE FOR SMALLER SITES WHICH MIGHT PROVE TO BE ONE OF THE MOST BENEFICIAL CHANGES TO THE PLANNING SYSTEM IN RECENT YEARS
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