Brownfield land register: what inclusion actually means

Inclusion on a brownfield land register means one of two very different things, and the difference is the part of the register your site sits in. A Part 1 entry records that the local planning authority considers previously developed land suitable, available and achievable for residential development. It grants nothing. A Part 2 entry grants permission in principle for housing on that land, which is a real consent that fixes use, location and amount of development, leaving the detail to a later application.

Almost every site on a register is in Part 1. Part 2 entries remain rare, because the authority has to run publicity and consultation before making one and most authorities have not prioritised it.

What the register is and who has to keep one

The Town and Country Planning (Brownfield Land Register) Regulations 2017 require every local planning authority in England to prepare, maintain and publish a register of previously developed land that is appropriate for residential development. The register has to be reviewed at least once a year, and it has to be published in a prescribed data format so that entries can be aggregated nationally.

That data standard is why the registers repay the effort to anyone looking for sites. Entries carry a site reference, address, coordinates, site area, ownership status, the authority's view on whether the site is deliverable, an estimate of the number of dwellings, and the planning status. The national planning data service collects them, so you can search across authorities rather than opening 300 spreadsheets.

Previously developed land takes its meaning from the glossary of the National Planning Policy Framework. It covers land occupied by a permanent structure and its fixed surface infrastructure, and it expressly excludes land in built-up areas such as residential gardens, parks and allotments, agricultural and forestry buildings, and land where the remains of a permanent structure have blended into the landscape. Garden land is the exclusion that catches people out most often.

What goes in Part 1

An authority may enter land in Part 1 where it meets the criteria in the Regulations. In practice that means the land is previously developed, it has an area of at least 0.25 hectares or is capable of supporting at least five dwellings, and the authority considers it suitable, available and achievable for residential development.

Those three words do specific work.

Suitable means the land is allocated in a development plan, has planning permission, has a grant of permission in principle, or is otherwise considered appropriate for residential development having regard to adverse impacts and the constraints on the site. Available means the owner has expressed an intention to sell or develop, or there is no ownership impediment. Achievable means development is likely to take place within fifteen years of the entry.

An authority has discretion. It may enter land that meets the criteria, and it is not obliged to enter every qualifying site, so absence from the register is not a judgement that a site is unsuitable. It may equally reflect that nobody told the authority the site exists.

Part 1 entries are updated as sites gain permission and are built out, which is what makes the register useful alongside the authority's housing trajectory. Anyone arguing about supply should read the two together, because a register full of sites with no permissions says something different from one dominated by consented schemes. The relationship between the two feeds directly into the housing trajectory and the five year buffer.

What a Part 2 entry grants

A Part 2 entry grants permission in principle under section 58A of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, inserted by the Housing and Planning Act 2016.

Permission in principle settles three things and nothing else: the use, the location and the amount of development. So an entry granting permission in principle for residential development of up to 35 dwellings on a defined site establishes that housing of that quantum is acceptable in principle at that location. Everything else, including layout, scale, appearance, access, landscaping, drainage and the technical evidence, is left to a later application for technical details consent.

Before making a Part 2 entry the authority has to publicise the proposal, notify owners and occupiers and consult the bodies the Regulations specify, so the in-principle acceptability has been tested publicly. That is the trade: a shorter and less costly second-stage application, in exchange for the authority having already consulted on the principle.

Permission in principle granted by entry in Part 2 has a limited life, and the application for technical details consent has to be made within that period. The duration is set by the legislation and differs between the register route and the application route, so check the current position for the specific entry rather than assuming.

The structural comparison that helps most people is with outline permission. Permission in principle is narrower than outline consent: an outline permission can fix a great deal more through approved parameters, and the matters left for later approval work differently, which is why what can and cannot be reserved is a separate question from what permission in principle covers.

Technical details consent

Technical details consent is the second stage. The authority assesses the details against the permission in principle, and it cannot revisit the matters the permission in principle settled. It cannot decide that housing is unacceptable in that location, or that the amount is too great, because those questions are closed.

What it can do is refuse on the details: an unacceptable layout, inadequate access, failure to deal with flood risk, insufficient parking, poor design. So the technical evidence base matters more at this stage than at any other, and the usual documents apply, including a Planning Statement explaining how the details accord with the permission in principle.

Determination periods for technical details consent are shorter than for a conventional application and are set out in the permission in principle legislation, so confirm the applicable period with the authority at the point of submission. The application fee is also calculated differently.

One practical warning. Because permission in principle fixes the amount of development, a technical details application for a materially different number of dwellings is outside the permission in principle, and the authority will treat it as a full application instead. Settle the quantum before you rely on the route.

Where permission in principle cannot be used

The route is closed for several categories of development, and this is the most common reason a promoter cannot use it.

Permission in principle is not available for development that is Environmental Impact Assessment development, or where an appropriate assessment under the habitats legislation is required. On a site near a European designated site, or large enough to be caught by Schedule 2 screening, the register route may therefore be unavailable even though the land is plainly brownfield. Screening the site early tells you whether the route is open, and what counts as environmental information under the Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations determines where that line falls.

It is also limited to housing-led development. Some non-residential floorspace can be included where the development is residential-led, but a commercial scheme cannot use the route at all.

The separate application route for permission in principle, where a promoter applies for it directly rather than waiting for the authority to make a Part 2 entry, is restricted to minor housing development, so larger sites depend on the register.

Illustrative example

Consider a redundant builders' merchant depot of 0.6 hectares on the edge of a town centre, with a yard, two single-storey buildings and a tarmac surface. This example is illustrative. The owner nominates the site, and the authority enters it in Part 1 with an indicative capacity of 22 dwellings. Nothing is granted, but the entry becomes evidence that the authority accepts the principle of housing there, which strengthens a later application and helps with lending conversations. Two years later the authority consults on a Part 2 entry and grants permission in principle for up to 22 dwellings. The owner then applies for technical details consent with a layout, levels, a drainage strategy and a contaminated land assessment, and the authority assesses only those matters. Where the owner instead wants 30 dwellings, the permission in principle does not cover it and a full application is needed.

What inclusion does not promise

Four things a Part 1 entry is not.

It is not a planning permission. It does not authorise any development, and it is not a commitment by the authority to grant permission.

It is not an allocation. Allocation happens through the local plan, with examination and a policy, and carries considerably more weight. A register entry is a statement of the authority's current view rather than adopted policy.

It is not a guarantee that constraints have been resolved. Contamination, access, flood risk, heritage, ecology and viability are all still live, and the authority's capacity estimate is indicative rather than tested.

It is not evidence of deliverability for every purpose. The authority's own judgement on deliverability sits in the entry, and it may be challenged in a different forum, for example at an appeal about housing land supply.

What it is, is a useful material consideration and a signal. An officer reading an application on a site the authority itself put on the register is being asked to depart from a position the authority has already taken, which is a better starting point than arguing the principle from scratch.

Getting a site onto the register

Authorities usually invite nominations as part of the annual review, often alongside the call for sites for the local plan. Some accept them at any time.

Send the authority a short pack: a site location plan with a red line, the site area in hectares, the previous use with evidence that it was a permanent structure, ownership details and a statement that the owner intends to sell or develop, a note on access and known constraints, and an indicative capacity with a sketch layout showing how it was derived. Include anything that answers the achievability question, such as a previous permission, a remediation strategy or a completed site investigation.

Then follow up after the review. Registers are updated annually and a nomination that arrives the week after the cut-off waits a year.

This is general guidance rather than legal advice, so check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it.

If you are preparing a technical details consent application, browse the 66 report types by category to see which assessments the site is likely to need.

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