Comparisons – Page 11
Side-by-side explanations of reports, consents and application types that people confuse.
Comparisons articles – page 11
263 articlesLawful development certificate: existing or proposed use
A section 191 certificate confirms that something already happening is lawful. A section 192 certificate confirms that a proposal would be. Here is how the evidence, burden of proof, fees and failure modes differ between them.
Outline permission or full planning permission
Outline permission establishes the principle of development and defers reserved matters; full permission approves a specific scheme ready to build. Here is how the statutory time limits, evidence requirements and costs differ.
Contamination Phase 1 or Phase 2: what triggers the dig
Phase 1 asks whether a source, a pathway and a receptor connect. If they plausibly do, Phase 2 goes into the ground. The trigger decides a five-figure cost.
LVIA or Townscape and Visual Impact Assessment
Landscape and townscape assessments share one methodology and differ in four places: the baseline, the receptors, how viewpoints get agreed, and what cumulative means.
Travel Plan or Transport Statement: what each secures
One document argues your scheme works on the network. The other binds the occupier to mode share targets, surveys and monitoring fees long after the last unit sells.
Construction Management Plan or Construction Traffic Plan
A traffic plan answers the highway authority, a management plan answers environmental health. What goes in each, and the four checks that stop them contradicting each other.
Whole Life Carbon or Circular Economy Statement
A whole life carbon assessment counts emissions by module. A circular economy statement tracks material flows and diversion. Where they share a bill of materials and where they diverge.
Energy Statement or Sustainability Statement: which is which
An Energy Statement proves a number against the Part L baseline. A Sustainability Statement answers adopted policy. Where the line falls and how to keep one set of figures across the pack.
Daylight and Sunlight Assessment or Overshadowing Study
A daylight and sunlight assessment tests neighbouring windows. An overshadowing study tests gardens and amenity space on 21 March. They answer different complaints.
Biodiversity net gain or habitats regulations assessment
One regime measures habitat units and asks for 10 per cent more. The other asks whether a designated site would be harmed, and refuses permission if doubt remains. They are not interchangeable.
Article 4 direction or a condition removing PD rights
Both close the permitted development route, but only one is mapped, consulted on and capable of attracting compensation. The differences decide which search picks it up before you buy.
Party wall notice or planning permission
A planning permission does not let you cut into a shared wall or dig beside a neighbour's foundations. What the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 requires, and how its timetable fits around an application.
Building Regulations or planning permission: what differs
Planning permission and building regulations approval are separate legal systems with separate applications and separate penalties. What each one controls, where they overlap, and the order to do them in.
Listed building consent or conservation area rules
Listing protects one building inside and out. A conservation area protects the appearance of a whole area through the planning system. The two controls, the consents they need and the offences they create.
Retail sequential test or retail impact assessment
Both tests apply to out of centre retail and both can refuse a scheme. Here is what each asks, what evidence it needs and where they diverge.
Sequential Test or Exception Test for flood risk
Two flood tests, in a fixed order. Here is what triggers the exception test, what its two limbs require, and why each test usually fails.
Prior approval or full planning permission
Prior approval narrows what a council may consider and runs on a fixed clock. Here is where that helps a landlord, and where a full application is safer.
Outline permission or permission in principle
One is a permission with matters reserved. The other establishes location, use and amount and nothing else. The difference decides what a lender treats as a consented site.
Section 73 or section 96A: which amendment route
The difference sounds procedural and it is why most amendment decisions go wrong. A section 73 permission arrives with fresh conditions, a new levy calculation and no obligation attached.
Preliminary ecological appraisal or protected species survey
One is a desk study and a walkover that grades potential. The other is seasonal fieldwork by a licensed ecologist. Commission them in the wrong order and a self-build programme loses a season.
Heritage Statement or Archaeological Desk-Based Assessment
One assesses significance and harm to what stands above ground. The other assesses the potential for what lies beneath it. Different authors, different standards, often both.
Planning Statement or Design and Access Statement
One is required by statute for defined applications, the other is asked for by validation lists. Splitting the content properly stops the two documents contradicting each other.
Transport Statement or Transport Assessment: which one
The difference between the two documents is depth, not subject matter. Here is how the thresholds work, what scoping with the highway authority should settle, and where budgets go wrong.
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