Permission in Principle (PiP)

Permission in Principle (PiP) came into force in June 2018 and is designed to separate the consideration of fundamental matters from the technical details for housing-led developments.

Should you have an under-utilised parcel of land and you wish to establish whether it has development potential, without the high planning expenditure, PiP is an option to consider.

Split into a two-stage process, the first stage is the initial Principal stage where the applicant submits an application stating the following:

• Location of development – must be on a parcel of land no greater than 1 hectare in size.
• Amount of development – up to 9 dwellings and no greater than 1,000 sqm of floor space created.

The Council must then decide within 5 weeks whether the principle of the development is acceptable. Should the Council positively reply, the applicant can then move onto the Technical Details Consent (TDC) stage.

The beauty of the TDC stage for the applicant is knowing that the principle of development is acceptable to the Council, so there is less risk than if a full planning application was submitted without this prior knowledge. At this stage, the applicant must submit information on matters such as highways, heritage, ecology, biodiversity net gain, arboriculture, and the appearance of the dwellings. Should the applicant not wish to spend the money, there is always the option of looking to sell on a subject to planning basis, with the principle of development already established with the local authority.

Many of our clients have used the PiP route as it’s a low-risk tool to sound out whether the Council is open to development on the land, without the upfront cost of a full planning submission.

Should you have a parcel of land which you feel has development potential, why not consider PiP.