Glossary
Outline planning permission
Permission for the principle of a development, with the details approved later.
What it means
Outline planning permission establishes whether a development is acceptable in principle, usually the use and the number of homes, without settling every detail. The details, called reserved matters (appearance, access, landscaping, layout and scale), follow in a later application within a set period. Land promoters often stop at outline because it fixes the value and lets the housebuilder design the scheme it wants to build.
Worked example
ExampleOutline consent for up to 12 homes on a two-acre site.
- Value before planning
- £24,000 (paddock)
- Value with outline
- £744,000 (residual)
- Still to come
- Reserved matters, by the buyer
Outline creates most of the uplift. The buyer takes on the detailed design.
Information, not advice. Example figures are fictional and for illustration only.