Glossary – Page 20
Substantive definitions of planning terms with their policy source and a worked example.
Glossary articles – page 20
479 articlesValidation: why councils return applications unregistered
Until an application validates, no clock runs and no officer is assigned. Here are the reasons councils return submissions, and the discipline that gets one registered first time.
Prior approval: the halfway house before permission
Prior approval is permission already granted, subject to the council checking a fixed list of matters. Here is which classes use it, what an officer may consider, and what happens when the period runs out.
Material change of use: the test councils apply
Material change of use is judged as a matter of fact and degree, on the character of the use rather than the activity on any one day. Here is the test officers apply and the evidence that settles it.
Development: what section 55 actually means
If it is not development, planning control does not apply. Here is the two-limb test in section 55 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, the express exclusions, and where de minimis fits.
Very special circumstances in the Green Belt
Substantial weight attaches to Green Belt harm, and the considerations relied on must clearly outweigh all of it. Most cases fail by arguing the wrong half of the balance.
Permitted development rights: what they actually cover
The rights are permission, not an exemption from planning. Here is where they come from, how each class is structured, the five things that remove them, and how to prove your works were lawful.
PTAL: public transport accessibility level in London
PTAL measures proximity to stops and service frequency. It says nothing about where the services go, which is why the band alone rarely answers a committee question.
Benchmark land value in a viability assessment
Most viability disputes are arguments about benchmark land value. Here is what the figure represents, how existing use value plus a premium is derived, when alternative use value is admissible, and what a reviewer tests.
Air Quality Management Area: what it means for you
An AQMA is a formal declaration that an air quality objective is not being met. Inside one, expect an assessment requirement and close scrutiny of your traffic assumptions.
Agent of change: who pays to mitigate the noise conflict
Build flats next to a venue and the flats carry the mitigation. Here is where the principle sits in national and London policy, what mitigation it buys, and the three limits operators should know about.
Source Protection Zone: groundwater and your site
Source protection zones are modelled on groundwater travel time to a drinking water borehole. They rarely stop a scheme, but they often rewrite the drainage strategy.
Annual probable sunlight hours: the BRE 209 sunlight tests
APSH, the winter component and the two-hour equinox test on gardens decide most sunlight arguments. Here is what each one measures and how to read a sunlight table without being misled.
SANG: suitable alternative natural greenspace
A SANG gives new residents somewhere to walk instead of a protected heath or estuary. If your site sits in a zone of influence, a contribution or a bespoke SANG is not optional.
Community Infrastructure Levy: how liability arises
CIL liability arises automatically when permission first permits development in a charging area. This explains the floorspace rules, the order the forms must be filed in, the self-build and extension exemptions, and what a missed commencement notice costs.
TRICS: where trip rates in transport reports come from
Almost every Transport Assessment in England takes its trip rates from TRICS. This explains what the database holds, how a practitioner picks comparable sites, and which questions expose a weak trip rate table.
Setting of a heritage asset: what it includes
Setting is the surroundings in which a heritage asset is experienced, not a mapped buffer. Here is what it covers, how the Historic England staged approach works, and what a planning officer expects to see written down.
Intensification: when doing more becomes development
Doing more of the same thing can need planning permission. This explains when intensification of use amounts to a material change of use under section 55, the character test the courts apply, and the evidence councils expect.
Planning unit: the piece of land the council assesses
The planning unit is the parcel the council measures change of use against. Get it wrong and your material change of use argument collapses before it starts.
Flood Zone 3b and the functional floodplain
Flood Zone 3b is the functional floodplain: land where water has to flow or be stored in a flood. Only water-compatible development and essential infrastructure belong there, and the zone is defined by your council's strategic flood risk assessment, not the national flood map.
Habitat units: the currency of biodiversity net gain
Habitat units are the unit of account in the Defra statutory biodiversity metric. Here is how the number is built, why area, hedgerow and watercourse units are counted separately, and what a metric output can and cannot tell you before you buy land.
Abandonment of use: when a lawful use dies
A lawful use can be lost through abandonment, which means resuming it needs fresh planning permission. Here is what the four factors cover and how to prove a last lawful use.
Principal elevation: how to identify it correctly
The principal elevation is the wall that fronts the main highway serving the house and carries its main architectural features. Here is how the test works, how corner plots and angled frontages change the answer, and which permitted development rights turn on it.
Curtilage: what counts as part of your house
Curtilage has no statutory definition, yet it decides whether a garden room, garage or annexe falls under householder permitted development. Here is how the courts test it and what evidence councils accept.
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