Reserved Matters

Reserved matters are the details held back when outline planning permission is granted – the things the council has not yet approved, and which you must come back for before you can build. Getting them approved is not a formality, and the deadline for applying is the single most unforgiving date in English planning: miss it and the outline permission is worth nothing at all. This page explains what the reserved matters are, how to get them approved, and where people come unstuck.

 

 

What are reserved matters?

When outline planning permission is granted, section 92 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 allows matters not particularised in the application to be reserved for later approval. Those are the reserved matters, and the Development Management Procedure Order defines five:

• access – the accessibility of the site for vehicles and pedestrians, and the way routes connect to the wider network
• appearance – the aspects of a building or place that determine how it looks
• landscaping – the treatment of land for the purposes of enhancing or protecting the amenities of the site
• layout – the way buildings, routes and open spaces are laid out in relation to each other and to the boundaries
• scale – the height, width and length of each building

Only the matters actually reserved by the outline permission need to come back. If access was settled at outline stage, it is settled – you do not reapply for it, and you cannot reopen it.

A reserved matters application is not a new planning application, and it is not a second bite at the principle. It is an application for approval of details under a permission you already hold. The council cannot revisit whether the site should be developed; you cannot use it to change what was approved.

The reserved matters deadline that kills outline permissions

Section 92(2)(a) requires that an application for approval of the reserved matters be made within three years of the grant of outline permission – unless the council substituted a different period, so read your decision notice.

This deadline is absolute. Section 93 provides that an application for approval of a reserved matter made after the date required is treated as not made in accordance with the terms of the permission. There is no late filing, no discretion, no grace period. The outline permission simply becomes unusable, and the only route is to start again with a fresh application, judged against whatever policy applies by then.

If you take one thing from this page: diary that date the day the outline permission is granted.

Once approval is given, development must be begun within two years of the final approval of the reserved matters – or, where different matters are approved on different dates, of the last one approved. In England that is the whole of it: there is no five-year longstop running from the outline grant. That formula belongs to Wales, and quoting it on an English site is a good way to miss a deadline.

A reserved matter counts as finally approved when the application is granted – or, if the council refused and you appealed successfully, when the appeal is determined.

Applying in phases

You do not have to deal with everything in one application. Reserved matters can be submitted separately, and large schemes routinely bring them forward in phases as the development rolls out.

Two consequences follow, and they cut in opposite directions:

• every reserved matters application must still be made within the three years – phasing does not buy you more time for the later phases
• the two-year implementation clock runs from the last matter approved, not the first – so a late approval on one phase extends the period for starting

Section 92(5) also lets the council set different periods for different parts of the development, which is the proper way to handle a genuinely long-term scheme. If you are promoting one, ask for it at outline stage rather than hoping to solve it later.

What if the permission is challenged in court?

Until 18th February 2026 this was a real hole. If someone challenged your outline permission or a reserved matters approval, the clock kept running – there was no extension, because the old provision only protected detailed permissions. An objector could effectively time a scheme out by litigating.

Section 92A now applies the same tiered extensions to outline permission and reserved matters approvals as apply to full permission: an extra year for High Court proceedings, a further year at the Court of Appeal, and two more at the Supreme Court. Those upper-court extensions apply only where the challenge is determined after a full hearing, not where permission or leave is refused. The extensions cover both the three-year reserved matters deadline and the implementation period – but nothing can revive a period that has already expired.

Staying within the outline permission

The commonest reason a reserved matters application runs into trouble is that it does not match the permission it sits under. The application must be made in accordance with the terms of the outline permission – so it has to sit within any parameters, plans or conditions the outline fixed.

If the detail you now want falls outside those parameters, a reserved matters application is the wrong tool. Depending on the scale of the difference, you may need a section 73 application to vary the outline’s conditions, a section 96A non-material amendment if it is genuinely trivial, or a fresh application if the change goes to the substance.

Note that neither section 73 nor section 96A can extend the time limits. You cannot buy more time for the reserved matters deadline by varying a condition.

Environmental impact assessment at reserved matters stage

If the environmental effects of the development were not fully assessed when the outline permission was granted, the question has to be revisited when the reserved matters come in. Reserving a great deal of detail on a sensitive site does not avoid the assessment – it defers it, and sometimes makes it harder. See our guide to EIA screening and scoping.

Biodiversity net gain works the other way round. A reserved matters application is not an application for planning permission, so the biodiversity gain condition does not attach to it – it sits on the original outline permission instead.

Who decides a reserved matters application?

Most are decided by officers under delegated powers, and from 31st October 2026 that becomes the national rule rather than local practice. Under the national scheme of delegation, reserved matters applications must be delegated to officers – with one exception: where the underlying outline permission was for 500 or more dwellings, or 50,000 square metres or more of floorspace, the application may be referred to committee if a nominated officer and a nominated member both agree it meets the gateway test.

The reasoning is that a single phase of a very large scheme can be substantial development in its own right. For everything below that threshold, committee referral will no longer be available – and councillors’ power to call applications in is being removed nationally at the same time.

These rules are not yet in force. Until 31st October 2026 each council’s own scheme of delegation applies.

What does it cost, and how long does it take?

A reserved matters application carries its own fee, on top of the fee you already paid at outline stage – see our guide to planning fees in England. Two applications, two fees, which is part of the honest calculation when deciding whether to go the outline route at all.

For determination periods, see our guide to planning timescales – and check the decision notice, since the council may have set its own periods.

If reserved matters are refused

You can appeal a refusal of reserved matters approval under section 78, within six months of the decision notice. You can equally appeal against conditions attached to the approval, or the council’s failure to decide in time.

Two warnings specific to reserved matters:

• for applications submitted on or after 1st April 2026, an appeal against refusal of reserved matters approval follows the expedited procedure – the Inspector considers only what was already before the council, and there is no opportunity to submit new evidence or a statement of case. See our guide to planning appeals, and our page on appeal timescales, which sets out the deadline for each type of application
• the three-year clock does not stop while you appeal. An appeal can take longer than the time you have left. If a reserved matters application is refused at year 2½, you have six months of clock and an appeal that may take considerably longer – resubmitting quickly is often the better move than appealing

That second point is the one that costs people schemes, and it is the reason to submit reserved matters early rather than at the deadline.

Practical points

• diarise the three-year date on the day the outline permission is granted – nothing else on this page matters as much
• submit well inside it; a refusal at the deadline leaves no room to recover
• read the outline permission’s conditions and parameters before designing, not after
• if access was reserved, deal with it first – it is the matter most likely to force a redesign
• a submitted-but-undetermined reserved matters application still counts as made in time; it is the application that must be within three years, not the approval

See also our guide to the types of planning application.

 

Relevant legislation

Reserved matters sit in the duration provisions of the main planning Act, alongside outline permission itself – and note that section 92 says different things for England and Wales. When checking any provision, use the “Changes to Legislation” panel on legislation.gov.uk, as later amendments are not always shown in the main text.

• Town and Country Planning Act 1990, section 92: outline permission, the three year reserved matters deadline, and the two year implementation period in England at subsection (2)(b)
• Town and Country Planning Act 1990, section 93: when a reserved matter is finally approved, and the effect of a late application
• Town and Country Planning Act 1990, section 92A: extension of time where outline permission or reserved matters approval is challenged in court, from 18 February 2026
• Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (England) Order 2015, article 2: the definition of reserved matters
• Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (England) Order 2015, article 6: applications for approval of reserved matters
• Town and Country Planning Act 1990, section 78: the right of appeal
• Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025, section 56: inserted section 92A

Other Planning Application Sections

   

 

Reserved Matters Page Updated: 12th August 2026