Reserved matters: the five matters and the section 92 clock
Only five matters can be reserved on an outline permission. Here is what each one covers, the statutory time limits in section 92, and the changes a reserved matters application cannot make.
A reserved matters application asks the council to approve the details that an outline planning permission deliberately left undecided. The outline fixes the principle of development. The reserved matters submission then settles what the scheme actually looks like on the ground, and until every reserved matter is approved, no development can lawfully begin. Article 2 of the Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (England) Order 2015 lists five matters that may be reserved: access, appearance, landscaping, layout and scale. Anything outside that list is not a reserved matter, whatever a condition calls it.
That distinction does real work on a site. Developers routinely discover that the thing they wanted to adjust at reserved matters stage was never reserved at all, which means a section 73 application or a fresh permission instead.
The five matters and what each one covers
The 2015 Order defines all five, and the wording sets the boundary of what you may defer.
| Matter | What the Order covers |
|---|---|
| Access | Accessibility to and within the site for vehicles, cycles and pedestrians, including the position and treatment of access and circulation routes and how they join the surrounding network |
| Appearance | The visual impression the buildings and spaces make, including external built form, architecture, materials, decoration, lighting, colour and texture |
| Landscaping | Treatment of land other than buildings to protect or improve amenity, including screening, planting, earthworks, gardens, squares, water features and public art |
| Layout | How buildings, routes and open spaces sit, are situated and are orientated in relation to each other and to what lies outside the site |
| Scale | The height, width and length of each proposed building in relation to its surroundings |
Read those definitions side by side and the overlaps become obvious. A change to where a terrace sits is layout. A change to how tall it is, is scale. A change to the brick is appearance. One proposal can touch all three, which is why most outline permissions reserve them as a set rather than individually.
Access deserves separate attention. Where access is not reserved, it has been approved in principle at outline stage, and the junction geometry shown on the outline drawings becomes the fixed point the rest of the layout has to work around.
How the outline application constrains what comes later
Article 5 of the 2015 Order is the provision applicants underuse. Where layout is reserved, the outline application must state the approximate location of buildings, routes and open spaces. Where scale is reserved, it must state the upper and lower limits for the height, width and length of each building. Where access is reserved, the area or areas where access points will be situated must be shown.
Those parameters bind the later submission. A reserved matters scheme that pushes a block above the stated upper height limit is not a reserved matters scheme at all, and a careful case officer will refuse to validate it.
So the parameter plan written at outline stage is the single most consequential drawing in the whole process. Set the upper limits too tight and you lose the flexibility you paid for. Set them absurdly wide and the council will either refuse the outline or impose conditions that claw the range back.
The time limits in section 92
Section 92 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 supplies the default clock for every outline permission that does not say otherwise.
- An application for approval of reserved matters must be made no later than three years from the date the outline permission was granted.
- Development must begin no later than whichever is the later of five years from the grant of outline permission, or two years from the final approval of the last reserved matter.
The local planning authority can substitute different periods, and on larger schemes it often does, so read the conditions rather than assuming the statutory default. Miss the three-year date and the outline permission lapses. There is no mechanism to extend it after expiry, and the replacement application is assessed against whatever policy applies then, which on a site that has since picked up a new constraint can be a materially worse position.
What a reserved matters submission cannot reopen
A reserved matters approval is the discharge of a condition, not a new grant of permission. It follows that the submission cannot revisit the principle of development, the description of development on the outline decision notice, or any matter already settled because it was not reserved.
The practical consequences are narrow and firm. You cannot add units beyond the quantum in the description. You cannot change the use. You cannot drop a condition you now find inconvenient. And you cannot use the reserved matters route to legitimise what is really intensification of the approved use, because that is a different question about whether a material change has occurred.
Where the scheme has really moved on, the honest routes are a section 73 application to vary a condition, a section 96A non-material amendment for something trivial, or a new application. Dressing a departure up as a reserved matters detail wastes a determination period and invites a refusal that then sits on the site's planning history.
Phasing and more than one submission
Large outline permissions are usually built out in phases, with a separate reserved matters application for each. Whether that works depends entirely on how the condition is drafted.
A condition requiring "the first application for approval of reserved matters" within three years allows later phases to come forward after that date. A condition requiring approval of all reserved matters within three years does not, and schemes have been lost on exactly that wording. Check it before you programme the phases, and if the wording is tighter than the development can deliver, negotiate it at the outline stage when the council still has an interest in granting something workable.
Illustrative example: an outline permission for 120 dwellings on a 4.5 hectare edge-of-settlement site reserves appearance, landscaping, layout and scale, with access approved. The developer submits phase one for 40 dwellings in year two, within the three-year window, then phases two and three in years four and six. The two-year clock in section 92 runs from the final approval of the last reserved matter in each phase, so starting work on phase one does not rescue a phase three submission that arrives after the condition allows.
The documents councils expect at reserved matters stage
National validation requirements are thinner at this stage than at outline, but local validation lists often are not. Expect drawings at a usable scale, a materials schedule, a landscape proposals plan and, on major schemes, an updated design statement that explains how the detailed scheme sits inside the approved parameters.
Technical evidence tends to be driven by the outline conditions rather than by the reserved matters themselves. If the outline carried a condition requiring a drainage scheme or an arboricultural method statement before work starts, that discharge runs alongside the reserved matters application, not inside it. Keeping the two tracks separate in your covering letter saves a lot of correspondence. The 66 report types grouped by category is a quick way to work out which of those supporting documents your conditions actually call for.
One honest uncertainty: councils differ on whether they will accept a reserved matters application and a conditions discharge in a single submission. Some will, some insist on separate fees and separate references. Ask the case officer before you submit.
Enter your postcode on PlanScope to see which supporting reports a reserved matters submission on your site is likely to need.
This is general guidance, not legal advice; check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.
Frequently asked questions
What are the five reserved matters?
Access, appearance, landscaping, layout and scale, as defined in article 2 of the Development Management Procedure Order 2015. Nothing else can be reserved. If an outline permission appears to defer some other issue, it is almost always doing so through a condition requiring approval of details, which is discharged separately rather than as a reserved matters application.
How long do I have to submit a reserved matters application?
Section 92 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 gives three years from the grant of outline permission unless the decision notice sets a different period. Development must then begin within five years of the outline grant or two years of the final reserved matters approval, whichever is later. Read the conditions, because councils frequently vary both.
Can an outline permission be extended if the three years runs out?
No. Once the period for submitting reserved matters expires, the outline permission lapses and cannot be revived. The only route is a fresh application, assessed against the development plan and national policy as they stand at that point. On sites that have gained a new constraint in the meantime, that can be a much harder application.
Does reserved matters approval count as planning permission?
It is the approval of details required by a condition on the existing outline permission, not a separate grant. That is why the principle of development, the description on the outline decision notice and any unreserved matter cannot be revisited. Changing those needs a section 73 application, a section 96A amendment or a new application.
Can different phases have separate reserved matters applications?
Usually yes, but it depends on the condition wording. A condition requiring the first reserved matters application within three years permits later phases afterwards. A condition requiring all reserved matters to be approved within three years does not. Check the exact words before committing to a phasing programme, and negotiate the wording at outline stage if it is too tight.
Sources and further reading
This article is general guidance about the planning system in England and, where stated, the rest of the UK. It is not legal or professional advice. Check your local planning authority’s validation requirements and take professional advice for your specific site.