An Order amending the rules on the information which must be submitted with an English planning application will come into force on 31 January.
This Order removes existing national requirements for information on layout and scale to be provided with outline applications where these are reserved matters to be determined at a later date.
Current rules require applications in which the layout is a reserved matter to state the approximate location of buildings, routes and open spaces. Where the scale is a reserved matter, the application must state the upper and lower limit for the height, width and length of each building.
The Order also makes it clear that a local planning authority’s ‘local list’ of information requirements for planning applications will only apply to a specific application if the list has been published within two years prior to the date of the planning application.
The Department for Communities and Local Government consulted on the proposals in summer 2012, saying it aimed to support the ‘localist’ approach by removing information requirements imposed nationally.
CLG said that although it recognised it might be beneficial to provide details of layout and scale at the outline application stage, it did not consider it necessary to ‘nationally mandate this’ in all cases where layout or scale has been reserved.
‘We consider that local planning authorities are better placed to judge the information required on a site-by-site basis and this proposal will allow for greater flexibility and proportionality, having regard to the complexity and specific context of a particular application,’ the department added.
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