Caravan sites on farms: licences and the planning overlap

A caravan site on a farm needs two things: planning permission for the change of use, and a site licence from the district council under the Caravan Sites and Control of Development Act 1960. The licence cannot be issued unless planning permission is already in force, so the order is fixed. Get the planning position wrong and the licence application never starts.

Both regimes carry exemptions, and the exemptions do not match. That mismatch is the source of most of the trouble farms get into with touring pitches.

Two consents, two regulators

Planning permission deals with whether a caravan site is acceptable in that location: landscape impact, access, drainage, the loss of agricultural land, the effect on neighbours. The site licence deals with how the site is laid out and run: spacing between units, roads, water, sanitation, fire points and refuse.

The licensing authority is the district or unitary council, and for permanent residential park home sites the Mobile Homes Act 2013 adds a further layer, including fee charging and stronger enforcement powers. Holiday and touring sites sit outside that regime but still need a licence.

Section 3 of the 1960 Act ties the two together. A licence cannot be granted for land unless planning permission for use as a caravan site is in force, and a licence issued for a site with a temporary permission expires with it.

The licensing exemptions that matter on a farm

Schedule 1 to the 1960 Act lists cases where no site licence is required. Four come up repeatedly on agricultural holdings.

• Use within the curtilage of a dwellinghouse, where the caravan use is incidental to the enjoyment of the house.
• Land of five acres or more, used for not more than three caravans, for not more than 28 days in any 12 months.
• Sites occupied and supervised by an organisation exempted by the Secretary of State.
• Land certified by an exempted organisation as a certificated location, where the number of caravans present at any one time is limited.
• Caravans occupied by agricultural or forestry workers on the land where they work.

The five acre exemption is the one most often misapplied. It exempts you from needing a licence. It does not give you planning permission, and the two 28 day periods are counted under different rules.

Certificated locations and their limits

A certificated location is land certified by an exempted organisation, usually a touring club, allowing a small number of caravans without a site licence. It is a workable route for a farm with a spare corner of a field and no appetite for a full licence application.

The limits are strict. The number of units permitted at any one time is small, facilities are basic by design, and the certificate is issued to the organisation's standards rather than the council's. Losing membership of the organisation removes the exemption and with it the lawful basis for the use.

Planning still has to be dealt with separately. Some certificated locations operate under the permitted development right for temporary use of land, others under an express planning permission, and a few operate on the assumption that neither is needed, which is where enforcement starts.

The planning side and the 28 day right

Part 4 of Schedule 2 to the General Permitted Development Order allows the temporary use of land for any purpose for a limited number of days in a calendar year, with a lower figure for markets and motor sports. The count has been amended more than once, so take the current number from the Order rather than from a guide.

Three points decide whether that right helps you.

It applies to the use of land, not to buildings, and it does not permit the engineering operations that go with a site. Laying hardstanding, forming a new access, installing a service block or building a bund are separate matters, and a new track will raise the questions covered in farm tracks and new accesses.

The days are cumulative across the calendar year for the whole planning unit, so two fields used at different times can exhaust the allowance between them.

And the right can be withdrawn by an Article 4 direction, which some National Park and National Landscape authorities have made precisely to control informal camping.

Beyond that allowance you need permission, and an application for a touring site in open countryside stands or falls on landscape impact, so the visual work described in landscape and visual evidence for a countryside application is the evidence that matters most.

What a site licence controls

Licence conditions are drawn from model standards issued by the Secretary of State, with separate standards for permanent residential sites and for holiday and touring sites. Councils may depart from them where local conditions justify it, but the standards are the starting point and most licences follow them closely.

The recurring conditions cover separation distances between units for fire spread, the width and construction of internal roads, hardstanding, water supply and drainage, the number and siting of fire points, refuse storage, lighting and the density of pitches per hectare. Separation distances are the ones that most often force a layout change, and they should be tested against the model standards before the planning drawings are fixed rather than afterwards.

Conditions are enforceable by the council, and breach is an offence under the 1960 Act rather than a planning matter. There is a right of appeal to the magistrates' court against licence conditions.

Seasonal occupancy and holiday conditions

Where permission is granted for holiday use, expect conditions restricting the caravans to holiday occupation, preventing use as a sole or main residence, requiring a register of occupiers to be kept and made available, and often closing the site for a period each winter.

Those conditions are the council's protection against a holiday site becoming unauthorised permanent housing. They are enforced, and a breach of condition notice carries no right of appeal to the Planning Inspectorate. Where a farm wants year round occupation, that has to be applied for openly rather than acquired by drift.

The same tension arises on building conversions, and the treatment in converting a rural building to holiday letting covers how those conditions are worded.

Where the two regimes disagree

A site licence cannot authorise anything planning permission does not allow, and a planning permission does not excuse a breach of licence conditions. The practical consequences follow from that.

A site operating within a licensing exemption but without planning permission is in breach of planning control, and the council can serve an enforcement notice. A site with planning permission but no licence, where no exemption applies, is committing an offence under the 1960 Act. A site with both, but with more units than the licence allows, breaches the licence and probably the permission too.

Keep a single document recording the planning permission number, its conditions, the licence number and its conditions, and check any proposed change against both. A Planning Statement that sets out the licensing position alongside the policy case makes the application easier for the case officer to follow.

This is general guidance, not legal advice. Check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.