Types of Planning Application

 

There is no single planning application route that fits every proposal. England has many different application, consent, certificate and notification procedures, and choosing the wrong one can lead to invalidation, delay or a decision on a route that cannot deliver what you need. This guide to the types of planning application explains the main routes, what each is for and where to go next. If you are not sure where to start, the first question is whether you need to apply at all.

 

 

First: do you need to apply at all?

 

The cheapest application is the one you never make. The statutory starting point is section 57 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990: planning permission is required for development. Before anything else:

• Permitted development – a great deal of work needs no permission at all, because the General Permitted Development Order grants it already. Start here
• Certificate of lawfulness of proposed use or development (CLOPUD) – use this to prove something is permitted development before you build it, and put the question beyond argument

If the answer is that you do need permission, the rest of this page is your menu.

 

Changing the use of land or buildings

 

A change of use is not one single application type. Start by identifying the existing and proposed uses and whether the change is development at all. Our planning Use Classes guide explains the current classes and how they work.

If planning permission is needed, the route then depends on the change. Some changes of use have permitted development rights under the GPDO, sometimes with prior approval; others require a full planning application. Our permitted development changes of use section sets out the principal GPDO routes. Where the question is whether an existing or proposed use is already lawful, a lawful development certificate may be the better application.

 

The main types of planning application

 

• Householder application – alterations or extensions to a house, or works within its curtilage. It uses the householder route and normally has an 8-week decision period, but it is not available for flats, changes of use or anything that changes the number of dwellings
• Full planning permission – the standard application. The whole scheme, decided in one go. This is where you land if nothing more specific fits
• Outline planning permission – settles the principle of development and leaves the detail for later. Use it to test whether a site is acceptable before paying for a full design
• Reserved matters – the second half of an outline permission, where the detail gets approved. Beware the three year deadline; it is the most unforgiving date in English planning
• Permission in principle (PiP) – a five week route to establish whether a small housing site is acceptable, for up to nine dwellings. Followed by technical details consent

 

Certificates – proving something is lawful

 

These do not grant anything. They confirm that something already is, or would be, lawful:

• Certificate of lawfulness of existing use or development (CLEUD) – proves something already built or already happening is lawful, usually because it is immune from enforcement. The 10 year rule lives here
• Certificate of lawfulness of proposed use or development (CLOPUD) – proves something you propose to do would be lawful. The permitted development proof
• Certificate of lawfulness of proposed works (section 26H) – the listed building version: confirms proposed works would not affect the building’s character, and so need no consent
• Certificate of immunity from listing – confirms a building will not be listed for five years. Handle with care: refusal usually means listing

 

Heritage, trees and land

 

• Listed building consent – required for works affecting the character of a listed building. Separate from planning permission, and doing the works without it is a criminal offence
• Varying listed building consent conditions (section 19) – changes the conditions on a listed building consent. Cannot be used to buy more time
• Listed buildings at risk – urgent works and repairs notices where a listed building is being neglected. There is no appeal against either, and the bill follows whoever owns the building
• Scheduled monument consent – for works to a scheduled monument. No fee, and no right of appeal
• Conservation area consent – now dealt with as planning permission for relevant demolition in a conservation area
• Consent under a Tree Preservation Order – for proposed work to trees subject to a TPO
• Notice of proposed works to trees in a conservation area – six weeks’ notice is required for works to trees over 75mm trunk diameter measured at 1.5m from the ground
• Hedgerow removal notice – most countryside hedgerows cannot simply be grubbed out; you must give notice and wait
• High hedges complaint – not a planning application, but the statutory complaint route for qualifying high hedges formed by two or more evergreen or semi-evergreen trees or shrubs over two metres where they adversely affect reasonable enjoyment of a home
• Settlement boundaries – an important local plan policy tool, but not a universal national definition of whether land is within a settlement or in the countryside
• Local plans – the old and new plan-making systems, and when a council can rely on an emerging plan
• Divert a public footpath or road – stopping up or moving a right of way that crosses the plot, who makes the order and who pays

 

Changing or fixing a permission

 

• Discharge of conditions – satisfying the conditions on a permission. Miss a pre-commencement condition and your start may not count at all
• Section 73 – variation or removal of conditions – changes a condition on an existing permission, and produces a new permission alongside the original
• Non-material amendment (section 96A) – for genuinely trivial changes to an approved scheme
• Retrospective planning permission (section 73A) – where the development is already built. It regularises nothing until granted, and the council can refuse to determine it altogether
• Reverting to a previous lawful use (section 57(4)) – not an application at all, but the right to put land back to what it lawfully was before, once an enforcement notice has been issued

 

Lighter-touch and notification routes

 

• Pre-application advice – optional, chargeable advice from the council before you apply. Not binding, but it can be a material consideration later
• Prior approval – some permitted development rights require you to notify the council first and get specific matters approved. The larger home extension route is the one most people meet
• Prior notification – certain telecommunications, demolition, agricultural and forestry proposals must be notified to the council before work starts. Usually another way of saying prior approval, though under Part 6 of the GPDO the notification is a distinct first stage
• Advertisement consent – required for advertisements that do not benefit from an exemption or deemed consent. Separate planning permission is not normally required for the display itself because section 222 provides deemed planning permission where the advertisement regulations are complied with, although other consents can still be required
• Hazardous substances consent – a separate planning control where specified hazardous substances are present, or likely to be present, at or above their controlled quantities

 

Assessments and special routes

 

• EIA screening and scoping – establishing whether an environmental impact assessment is needed, and what it must cover. Not appealable
• Section 62A applications – applying direct to the Planning Inspectorate where the council has been designated as underperforming. There is no appeal if it goes wrong
• Crown development application – a special route for nationally important development by or on behalf of the Crown, submitted through the Planning Inspectorate rather than determined by the local planning authority

 

Before you apply

 

Whichever type you need, these apply to most of them:

• Minor or major? – which category your application falls into, and why it matters
• Planning fees – what it costs
• Timescales – 8, 13 or 16 weeks?
• Required drawings and block, site and location plans – what you actually need to submit
• Material considerations and what is not one – what the council can and cannot take into account
• Validation requirements – what a council can lawfully ask for before it registers your application
• Ownership certificates – who you must tell about your application, and which certificate to sign
• Design and access statement – when article 9 requires one, and when it does not
• Planning statement – when DM1 expects a concise statement for major development, what it should cover and how it differs from validation requirements
• Local validation lists – find the list published by your council in England
• Validation dispute – what to do when the council demands information you do not think it can require
• Publicity and neighbour consultation – how the council tells people about your application, and when it must write to neighbours

 

After a decision

 

• Planning conditions – what they are and how they work
• Making planning extant – how to make a material start and keep the permission alive
• Non-determination appeals – appealing when the council fails to decide in time
• Planning appeals – refusal, non-determination or an enforcement notice. Note the rules changed on 1st April 2026
• Award of costs – when one party to an appeal has to pay another party’s expenses
• Judicial review and section 288 – challenging a planning decision in the High Court
• Planning guarantee – when a council takes too long
• Planning committees and the national scheme of delegation – who actually decides your application

 

Not your application? You can also object to a planning application or support one.

Other Planning Application Sections

 

Types of Planning Application Page Updated: 22nd August 2026