Residential Scale Thresholds
What changes for a scheme at 1, 5, 10, 50 and 150 homes and at 0.5 and 1 hectare.
Latest in Residential Scale Thresholds
167 articlesWhen a scheme needs environmental impact screening
More than 150 dwellings or more than five hectares puts a scheme into Schedule 2 of the EIA Regulations 2017. Crossing a threshold does not mean an environmental statement is needed, but it does make screening unavoidable.
What changes for a scheme of one new dwelling
One new house is not a householder application. Net gain exemptions, the levy start notice and foul drainage evidence are where single plot schemes go wrong.
What changes when a scheme includes affordable housing
Crossing the major development threshold brings a percentage requirement, a tenure mix to agree with a registered provider, and a section 106 agreement that has to be enforceable years later.
What changes when a site crosses into a flood zone
A site that straddles a flood zone boundary is judged on where you build, not on a single classification. Here is how the sequential approach, levels and access work.
What changes at eighteen metres in height
Eighteen metres or seven storeys pulls in Planning Gateway One, the higher-risk building regime and three Building Regulations changes. Here is how the tests are measured and what each one costs the plan.
What changes at two thousand five hundred square metres
Two thousand five hundred square metres is the national default threshold for retail impact assessment outside a town centre, and the figure most highway authorities use for a Transport Assessment. The sequential test has no threshold at all.
What changes at one thousand square metres
One thousand square metres is the floorspace route into major development for non-residential schemes. It changes the determination period, the publicity, the fee basis and the policy tests that apply.
What changes at one hectare
One hectare is the site area at which a flood risk assessment is expected even where the site sits wholly in Flood Zone 1. It also moves non-residential schemes into major development and brings the lead local flood authority into the process.
What changes at half a hectare
Half a hectare is the site area at which a residential scheme becomes major development when the number of dwellings is not yet known. That single definition changes the determination period, the publicity, the drainage regime and the fee basis.
Levy liability at 100 square metres or one home
The Community Infrastructure Levy minor development exemption applies below 100 m2 of new floorspace, but never where the development creates a dwelling of any size.
The retail impact assessment threshold of 2,500 m2
The default national threshold for a retail impact assessment is 2,500 m2 of floorspace where a local plan sets no figure. The sequential test has no threshold at all and applies at any scale.
Affordable housing at ten units and the rural option
Affordable housing contributions are not sought below major development, meaning 10 dwellings or 0.5 hectares. In designated rural areas under the Housing Act 1985 a plan may set a threshold of five units or fewer.
One hundred and fifty units and Active Travel England
The residential trigger is 150 units, with further triggers at 7,500 square metres of floorspace and 5 hectares of site area. Here is what the consultee looks at and what answers it.
Eighteen metres and seven storeys, measured properly
Height runs from the lowest adjacent ground to the floor surface of the top storey, not to the parapet. Here is how the storey count, plant exclusions and mezzanine rule actually work.
Why screening thresholds fall away in a sensitive area
Regulation 2(1) makes the sensitive area route an alternative to the thresholds, so four houses can need screening while eight in a conservation area do not.
EIA screening at 150 dwellings and five hectares
The housing screening trigger is more than 150 dwellings, and the five hectare overall area limb catches far more schemes. Here is how screening actually works.
Major development status without any new floorspace
Only one limb of the major development definition mentions floorspace. Site area, waste and minerals catch schemes with no buildings at all, and bring the longer determination period with them.
Does existing floorspace count towards the threshold
Major development status turns on the floorspace a scheme creates, while the Community Infrastructure Levy turns on net additional floorspace. Here is how the same building is counted on both bases.
Phasing a scheme to stay below a threshold
Some thresholds are assessed on the application and some on the project as a whole. Here is where phasing is legitimate, where project splitting makes a permission vulnerable, and how the levy treats a phased permission.
What goes inside the red line for the half hectare test
Site area is a major development threshold on its own. What the application red line has to contain, what belongs on the blue line, and how a buffer or an access strip can tip a small scheme into major status.
How floorspace is measured for a major development test
Gross internal, gross external and net additional floorspace produce different answers to the same question. How to measure, which basis each regime uses, and what the schedule should contain.
What counts as a dwelling when you count units
Major status, affordable housing policy and the determination period all turn on the number of dwellings. Houses in multiple occupation, student rooms and annexes are each counted on a different basis.
Splitting a site to stay below ten units
Two applications of nine dwellings rarely avoid major development status. How officers identify a single planning unit, and when separate applications are proper.
The nine to ten unit cliff edge in a housing scheme
At ten dwellings a housing scheme becomes major development under the DMPO 2015. The determination period, publicity, consultees, affordable housing and biodiversity metric all change.
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