Caravan and residential park home site planning permission

A caravan site needs two consents, not one. Caravan site planning permission authorises the use of the land, and a site licence issued under the Caravan Sites and Control of Development Act 1960 regulates how the site is laid out and run. The licence cannot be issued to anyone who does not already hold planning permission for the use, so the order is fixed: permission first, licence second, and the licence conditions then bind the operation for as long as it continues.

Landowners routinely apply for one and discover the other halfway through.

Two consents, two regulators, one site

Planning permission comes from the local planning authority and answers the policy question: is this use acceptable here, at this scale, with this access and this landscape effect.

The site licence comes from the local authority acting under the 1960 Act and answers the operational question: are the units far enough apart, are the roads wide enough for a fire appliance, is there adequate water, drainage, refuse storage and lighting. Licence conditions draw on the government's model standards for caravan sites, which cover separation between units, road widths, hard standings, fire points and boundary distances. Check the current version rather than an older one, because they have been revised.

For residential park home sites in England the Mobile Homes Act 2013 added a licensing regime with fit and proper person requirements and enforcement powers, and residents on protected sites hold statutory agreements under the Mobile Homes Act 1983. None of that is planning, and none of it can be fixed by a planning condition.

What counts as a caravan, and when siting one is development

The statutory definition is in section 29 of the 1960 Act: a structure designed or adapted for human habitation that is capable of being moved from one place to another, whether by towing or on a vehicle. Section 13 of the Caravan Sites Act 1968 extends that to twin-unit structures assembled on site, within maximum dimensions of 20 m in length, 6.8 m in width and 3.05 m internal height.

Exceed those dimensions and the structure is not a caravan. It is a building, which changes the application from a change of use to operational development and usually changes the policy test with it.

Stationing caravans on land is a change of use of the land rather than building work. Whether it needs permission is the ordinary question of whether there has been a material change of use, so a single caravan used by the household within the garden of a house, incidental to the enjoyment of that house, generally does not need permission, while five caravans let to holidaymakers in the same garden plainly would.

Schedule 1 to the 1960 Act lists uses that do not need a site licence, and Part 5 of Schedule 2 to the General Permitted Development Order 2015 grants planning permission for most of those same circumstances. The recurring ones are use incidental to a dwellinghouse, a single caravan for one or two nights by a traveller, up to three caravans on land of five acres or more for not more than 28 days in any twelve months, sites approved by certified exempted organisations, seasonal accommodation for agricultural and forestry workers, and accommodation on building and engineering sites. Each has conditions attached and each is narrower than it sounds.

Residential, holiday and touring pitches are different applications

The three are treated separately, and mixing them in one application without saying so is a common reason for refusal.

A residential park home site provides permanent homes. It engages housing policy, needs to be assessed against the local plan's spatial strategy, and in most rural authorities will be tested for whether the location is sustainable for people who live there all year.

A static holiday caravan site provides tourism accommodation. It engages rural economy and tourism policy, which is often more permissive in the countryside, but it comes with occupancy conditions to stop the units becoming permanent homes.

A touring site provides pitches for caravans and motorhomes brought by their occupants. Landscape effect is lower because the units come and go, but the seasonal traffic, the utility provision and the reinstatement of the land when the site closes all get scrutinised.

Say which one you are applying for in the first paragraph of the planning statement, and say what the maximum number of pitches will be. Applications that leave that open are usually refused or heavily conditioned.

Why flood risk is the hardest test for caravan sites

The flood risk vulnerability classification treats caravans, mobile homes and park homes intended for permanent residential use as highly vulnerable development. That is the most restrictive category, and highly vulnerable development should not be permitted in Flood Zone 3, and in Flood Zone 2 requires the exception test to be passed.

Sites used for holiday or short-let caravans and camping sit one step down, as more vulnerable, provided there is a specific warning and evacuation plan in place.

The logic is straightforward once you have seen a flooded caravan site. Units are light, they float, occupants may be asleep and unfamiliar with the area, and evacuation on foot through moving water is dangerous. So the sequential test bites hard, the Environment Agency comments, and a flood risk assessment that does not include a proper flood warning and evacuation plan, with named responsibilities and a route to a refuge above design flood level, will not satisfy either the council or the Agency.

Where the site is seasonal, a condition closing it during the winter months is a common mitigation, because it takes the occupants out of the period of highest fluvial risk.

The evidence base an officer will ask for

For anything beyond a handful of pitches, budget for the following:

1. A survey-based site layout showing pitch positions, separation distances, roads, turning heads, parking, refuse points and fire points.
2. Access and visibility splays measured against the highway authority's standards, with a swept path analysis for the largest vehicle expected, which for a static site means the transporter that delivers the units.
3. Foul drainage evidence: connection to the public sewer where available, or a package treatment plant with percolation testing and an environmental permit position.
4. Surface water drainage that accounts for the hard standings and access roads, with discharge rates agreed.
5. Water supply, electricity and lighting, with a lighting design that keeps spill away from hedgerows used by bats.
6. An ecological appraisal, since these sites tend to be on field margins, and a landscape assessment where the site is prominent or within a National Landscape.

Landscape effect decides more rural caravan applications than anything except flood risk. Static units read as pale horizontal blocks in an open field, and screening takes years to establish. A landscape and visual impact assessment prepared to the usual guidelines, with winter viewpoints rather than summer ones, is worth more than a promise of planting.

Conditions you should expect and read carefully

Occupancy conditions are the substance of most holiday site permissions. The usual form restricts occupation to holiday purposes, prevents any unit being occupied as a sole or main residence, and requires the operator to keep a register of occupiers with home addresses and dates of stay, available to the council on request.

Seasonal conditions close the site for a defined period each year. Read the dates before agreeing, because a closure period that runs from late October to mid-March removes most of the shoulder season.

Other standard conditions cap the number of units, fix their positions by reference to an approved layout, control external colours and materials, require landscaping to be planted in the first planting season and replaced if it fails, and restrict the storage of touring units on pitches out of season.

Breaching an occupancy condition is enforceable through a breach of condition notice, which carries no right of appeal, and long-term breaches on caravan sites are one of the areas rural councils do pursue.

Working order for a new site

Pre-application advice first, because the officer will tell you whether the principle is acceptable before you spend money on surveys. Then the constraints check: flood zone, landscape designation, highway access, ecology, heritage. Then the technical evidence. Then the application. Then, once permission is granted, the site licence application to the same council under the 1960 Act, with a layout that matches the approved plan.

Sites for Gypsies and Travellers are assessed under a separate national policy document with its own definitions and tests, and should not be run through the same policy framework as a holiday park.

This is general guidance, not legal advice. Permitted development and licence exemptions are narrow and site specific, and a Lawful Development Certificate is the only formal way to confirm that a use is lawful. Check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it.

Browse the 66 PlanScope report types or enter your postcode on PlanScope to see which documents a caravan site application is likely to need. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.