Glossary – Page 5
Substantive definitions of planning terms with their policy source and a worked example.
Glossary articles – page 5
481 articlesVibration dose values and construction vibration limits
The vibration dose value measures cumulative human exposure, while peak particle velocity measures damage risk to buildings. Here is how each is used and what a construction submission should commit to.
The SPOSH test in Part 2A contaminated land decisions
SPOSH is the statutory threshold at which land can be determined as contaminated. Here is what it means, why planning conditions handle almost every case instead, and what a desk study can and cannot conclude.
Intensification: when doing more of the same becomes development
An increase in activity can amount to a material change of use, but only where the character of the use has altered. Here is the test, the indicators authorities use, and the evidence that settles it.
Heritage partnership agreements: what they cover and when
A heritage partnership agreement can pre-consent repetitive works to listed buildings for an agreed term. Here is what sections 26A to 26C allow, who has to be consulted, and where the time saving stops.
Purchase notices where land cannot be reasonably used
A purchase notice can force a council to buy land left incapable of reasonably beneficial use by a refusal. Here is the statutory test, the deadline, the authority's options and why most notices fail.
First Homes exception sites and their tests
First Homes exception sites deliver discounted market sale housing on unallocated land. The location tests, the discount and cap arithmetic, eligibility and the obligation that makes it work.
Housing trajectory and the five year buffer
The buffer is applied to the requirement, not the supply, so it moves the answer more than almost any other input. How the calculation works and the six points where it is usually contested.
De minimis in planning judgments
There is no size below which works stop being development. What section 55 actually says, where real de minimis thresholds exist, and why a Lawful Development Certificate beats an assumption.
Reserved matters and what cannot be reserved
Only five matters can be reserved by an outline permission. The use, the quantum and the principle are settled at grant. Here is what must still be fixed, how binding parameter plans are, and the deadlines that lapse a consent.
Approval of details or discharge of conditions
Approval of details and discharge of conditions are one procedure under article 27 of the DMPO 2015. Reserved matters are something else. Here is what each route decides, what it costs and how long it takes.
Environmental information under the EIA Regulations
Under the EIA Regulations 2017, environmental information takes in the statement, further information, consultee responses and public representations. All of it must be considered.
Ransom strips and the access nobody owns
A metre of land between your site and the highway can control whether anything gets built. Find it in the title work, not after you have paid for the site.
Windfall sites and their role in housing supply
A windfall allowance forecasts homes on sites nobody has identified yet. The evidence it needs, the double counting it invites and how to test it in an appeal.
Loss of outlook and how it differs from light
There is no right to a view, but outlook from a habitable room window is a material consideration. Here is how officers assess it and how it sits against daylight measures.
Overbearing impact as a reason for refusal
Overbearing impact is about dominance and enclosure, not measured light. Here is how officers assess it, what evidence answers it and which design changes normally fix it.
Cascade mechanisms in a section 106 agreement
A cascade sets out what happens when the agreed affordable tenure cannot be placed with a registered provider. The triggers, the evidence and the floors decide whether it still delivers homes.
Nomination rights in a section 106 agreement
Nomination rights decide who occupies the affordable homes a scheme delivers. Registered providers price the clause, so the drafting affects what the units are worth.
Discount market sale as an affordable housing product
Discount market sale is a market home sold below open market value with the discount preserved on resale. The drafting is what decides whether it still works in 2050.
Severance of an unlawful planning condition
Severance strikes out an unlawful condition and leaves the permission intact. Where the condition is fundamental, the permission falls with it, which is why section 73 usually wins.
Conditions precedent and why the wording matters
A condition precedent stops development until something is approved. The wording creates it, and the fortnight before determination is when it can still be changed.
The Whitley principle and conditions discharged late
Under the Whitley principle, work carried out in breach of a condition precedent does not implement the permission. Here is how the rule works, and how to avoid it.
Material operation under section 56: what counts as a start
Section 56 fixes the date development begins. Here is the closed list of material operations, the works that do not count, and the records that prove the start years later.
The Newbury tests and when a condition is unlawful
A planning condition can satisfy every policy test in guidance and still be unlawful. The Newbury tests are the three that decide validity.
Section 288 challenges to a planning decision
Section 288 is the only route to challenge an inspector's appeal decision, and the six week limit runs from the date the decision was taken, not received.
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