Report bundle for a new care home on a settlement edge

A new care home on the edge of a settlement is a Class C2 residential institution, and the evidence base is not a housing evidence base with different labels. Four documents do most of the work: a need and policy case for a C2 use outside the settlement boundary, a transport assessment built on shift patterns rather than commuter peaks, flood risk evidence that deals with evacuating residents who cannot self-evacuate, and an ecology and landscape package for a greenfield edge. Scope those first and the rest of the pack follows.

The classification question comes before all of it. Where the scheme is extra care or assisted living rather than a registered care home, the use may fall in Class C3 instead, and that changes affordable housing, levy liability and the policy tests.

Class C2 and why it is not housing

Class C2 covers residential institutions, which includes residential care homes, nursing homes, hospitals, and residential schools and colleges. The distinguishing feature is institutional care provision rather than independent living.

The line between C2 and C3 is drawn on the degree of care and the independence of the occupiers, and the Use Classes Order does not define it numerically. A registered nursing home with 24-hour care, communal dining and no self-contained tenancies is clearly C2. A development of self-contained apartments with a warden and an optional care package is much closer to C3. Schemes in between have been argued both ways, and the honest position is that it turns on the facts of the operating model rather than on a label in the application description.

Get it settled early, because three things follow from it. Affordable housing policy generally applies to C3 and generally does not apply to C2, though some authorities seek contributions from C2 schemes through their own policy wording. Levy liability depends on the charging schedule, which may set a separate rate for C2 or none at all. And whether the bedspaces count towards housing land supply depends on the authority's own approach, since national guidance allows plan-makers to apply a ratio to C2 bedspaces when assessing need.

Describe the operating model in the application: registration status, staffing levels by shift, the care categories provided, whether units are self-contained, and the tenure arrangement.

Need and the local policy position

On a settlement edge site the policy case has two parts: why a care home is needed in this area, and why it has to be here rather than within the built-up area.

The need evidence should come from published sources rather than from the operator's commercial appraisal alone. The authority's adult social care market position statement, the local plan's own evidence on specialist accommodation for older people, the strategic housing market assessment where it covers C2, and population projections for the older age groups in the relevant area all carry weight. Cite each document by name and date. Avoid any figure you cannot attribute to a published source.

The locational case needs a sequential approach of its own. Set out the sites within the settlement that were considered and why each was discounted on size, shape, availability, access or deliverability. A care home has a large single-storey or two-storey footprint, needs level access throughout, and needs an enclosed garden, so the site search argument is usually genuine and should be presented with the evidence rather than asserted.

Where the site is in the Green Belt, a care home is inappropriate development unless it falls within an exception, and very special circumstances have to be demonstrated. Where the site is in a National Landscape, the designation's statutory purposes apply. Neither is a reason not to apply, but both change the shape of the planning statement entirely.

Because the site area and floorspace will in nearly every case exceed the major development thresholds, the application carries the longer determination period and the wider consultation, as set out in our note on schemes at the major development threshold.

Transport, staff shifts and visitor parking

A care home's travel profile looks nothing like housing, and using residential trip rates will produce a result nobody believes.

Residents generate almost no vehicle trips. Staff arrive and leave on shift changeovers, commonly early morning, early afternoon and late evening, which means the main staff movements fall outside the network peak hours used in junction modelling. Visitors cluster in afternoons and at weekends. Deliveries, laundry collections, clinical waste and healthcare visits add a steady weekday pattern.

Build the assessment from the operator's own shift pattern and staffing schedule, with the numbers on duty and the changeover times stated, then cross-check against trip rate survey data for the C2 category. Present the peak hour movements for the network peaks and for the shift changeover peaks separately, because the second set may be the higher figure and the highway officer will want to see both.

Parking standards for C2 are usually expressed per bed plus an allowance per staff member on the largest shift, with visitor spaces on top. Provide a drop-off point close to the main entrance that an ambulance can use without blocking the car park, and show the swept path for a refuse vehicle and for the largest delivery vehicle. The thresholds that trigger a full transport assessment rather than a statement are covered in when a transport assessment becomes necessary.

Amenity space and outdoor provision

Garden space in a care home is a clinical requirement as much as an amenity one, and officers who have read the design guidance will look for it specifically.

Provide an enclosed, secure garden accessible directly from communal areas at ground level, with level or gently graded paths, a looped circulation route, seating at intervals, shade, and planting that is safe for residents with dementia. Where the home provides dementia care, the layout should support walking without dead ends or visible exits that create distress.

Set out the external areas on a landscape plan with areas stated, and distinguish the secure resident garden from staff and visitor areas. A scheme that shows a large landscaped frontage and a thin strip at the rear will be criticised, correctly.

Flood risk and the vulnerability classification

This is where C2 schemes are most often misunderstood. In the national flood risk vulnerability classification, residential institutions such as care homes fall within the more vulnerable category, which is the same category as dwellings rather than a higher one.

The difficulty lies in the population rather than the classification. Residents who cannot self-evacuate change the safety case completely, and in Flood Zone 3a the exception test requires the development to be safe for its lifetime without increasing flood risk elsewhere. Demonstrating safe access and egress for a building full of people with limited mobility is considerably harder than for housing, and a flood warning and evacuation plan that relies on residents walking to a refuge point is not credible.

What works is a combination: finished floor levels above the design flood level including the climate change allowance, a safe refuge within the building at a level above that, a dry or safe access route for emergency vehicles, and an evacuation plan agreed in principle with the emergency planning officer that accounts for assisted evacuation times. Where the site is in Flood Zone 3a, apply the sequential test properly first, because an exception test argument fails if the sequential test has not been done. The approach to zone-specific evidence follows the pattern described in reports needed for housing in Flood Zone 3a, with the evacuation case doing much more of the work.

Drainage, utilities and plant

A care home's service loads are commercial, not domestic, and that catches drainage and utilities evidence out.

Foul flows from a commercial kitchen, an industrial laundry and clinical facilities exceed a per-bedroom domestic calculation, so a foul sewage assessment with the operator's fixture schedule and estimated flows is worth preparing rather than relying on a population equivalent. Confirm capacity with the sewerage undertaker in writing. On a settlement edge site the nearest public sewer may be some distance away, and the cost and consenting of the connection belong in the planning submission because they affect deliverability.

Surface water drainage needs a strategy with discharge hierarchy, greenfield run-off rates and attenuation sized for the climate change allowance. Utilities need a capacity check for electricity in particular, because a care home carries standby generation, lifts, and significant mechanical plant.

Plant noise is the item most likely to generate a condition. Kitchen extract, laundry extract, chillers, air source heat pumps and a standby generator all sit outside the building, often close to the boundary on a tight site. A noise impact assessment to BS 4142:2014+A1:2019 with the plant schedule, locations and proposed attenuation should be submitted with the application, and the generator should be assessed for test-run conditions as well as emergency operation.

Ecology and landscape on a settlement edge

A greenfield edge site brings the full ecology package. A preliminary ecological appraisal first, then the further surveys it scopes: bats where there are trees or buildings to be affected, great crested newts where there are ponds within range, reptiles on rough grassland, breeding birds, and badgers.

Mandatory biodiversity net gain applies. It needs at least a ten per cent uplift measured with the statutory metric, secured for 30 years, with a biodiversity gain plan approved before development starts. The metric must be completed by a competent person and any protected species licence requires a suitably licensed ecologist. An AI-assisted draft is a starting point for that professional, not a substitute.

Landscape and visual work matters because the building is large, low and pale, and a settlement edge location means it will be seen against open countryside. A landscape and visual impact assessment with agreed viewpoints, plus a landscape strategy showing structure planting with an establishment and management specification, is the usual requirement. Allow for the time planting takes to perform.

The application pack

For a typical 60 to 80 bed scheme on a greenfield edge, expect: planning statement with the need and sequential case, design and access statement, transport assessment and travel plan, parking layout with swept paths, flood risk assessment with sequential and exception test where relevant, drainage strategy, foul sewage assessment, utilities assessment, noise impact assessment, preliminary ecological appraisal with further surveys, biodiversity net gain assessment, arboricultural impact assessment where trees are affected, landscape and visual impact assessment, landscape strategy, and a construction management plan. A health impact assessment or social infrastructure assessment may be required by local policy.

Smaller C2 proposals in existing buildings are a different exercise, closer in shape to the evidence needed for a nursery change of use. Browse the 66 report types by category to scope against your own constraints, and enter your postcode on PlanScope to see what the site triggers.

This is general guidance, not legal advice. Policy, standards and classification questions vary, so check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it.

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