Planning application types explained

Councils decide many kinds of application, and the type sets what is actually being judged, who gets consulted and how long it takes. The type usually shows in the reference suffix (our reference number guide decodes those) and on the application page itself. Here is what each of the common types means.

Householder

Works to a single house and its garden: extensions, loft conversions, porches, outbuildings, dropped kerbs. The council weighs the effect on neighbours and the street, chiefly light, overlooking and bulk. These are the fastest and most numerous applications, and most are approved. Flats are excluded; works to a flat need a full application.

Full applications

The standard route for everything from a pair of new houses to a supermarket, and for changes of use, such as a shop becoming a cafe. All the detail is fixed at this stage: siting, design, access, landscaping. What is granted is what must be built, subject to any conditions.

Outline

Tests whether development of a site is acceptable in principle before the detailed design work is paid for. Some or all of the detail is held back as reserved matters. An outline grant on a nearby site means the principle of building there is settled; the detail is still to come. In Scotland the equivalent is planning permission in principle.

Reserved matters

The follow-up to an outline grant, filling in whichever details were reserved: appearance, layout, scale, access or landscaping. The principle of development is no longer up for debate; comments carry weight only on the detail being settled.

Heritage and listed buildings

Listed building consent is needed for works that affect the character of a listed building, inside or out, on top of any planning permission. Conservation area consent covers demolition in a conservation area. The test is harm to significance, which is why internal alterations that need no planning permission elsewhere still need consent in a listed building.

Trees

Work to a tree protected by a Tree Preservation Order needs consent, and work to any tree in a conservation area needs six weeks' notice to the council first. These applications are usually decided quickly and turn on the tree's health and amenity value, often with an arboricultural report attached.

Advertising

Consent for signs and advertisements: shopfront fascias, projecting signs, hoardings, illuminated displays. The council may only consider amenity and public safety, a narrower test than for other applications.

Conditions

A grant usually comes with conditions, and some must be discharged with further details before work starts: materials, drainage schemes, construction plans. An application to approve those details appears on the register in its own right. Seeing one tells you an approved scheme is moving towards a start on site.

Amendments

Changes to a permission already granted. A non-material amendment covers small tweaks. Varying or removing a condition, often under section 73, is the route for bigger changes such as revised drawings or longer working hours. If a nearby scheme changed after it was approved, this is usually how.

Prior approval

Some development is already permitted by national rules, but the council must first approve specific matters: larger rear extensions, office-to-home conversions, some demolition and agricultural buildings. The council can only weigh the matters the rules name, such as transport or flooding, and there is a fixed clock. If it does not respond in time, approval can follow by default.

Telecoms

Masts, cabinets and antennas, mostly under prior approval rules where the council decides siting and appearance only. The need for the network is not part of the test.

Lawful development

A certificate of lawful development is not permission. It is a formal ruling that something either does not need permission or has become lawful through the passage of time. Owners often obtain one before selling. There is no planning judgement involved, only evidence, so there is no scope to object on planning grounds.

Everything else

Registers also carry hedgerow removals, demolition notifications, certificates for proposed works and council-specific paperwork. Where an application does not fit a common type, the description on its page is the thing to read; it states exactly what has been asked for.

To see what any of these look like in practice, browse applications by council. If a decision is what you are waiting on, see how long decisions take, and if you want to hear about new applications near you, set up an alert.