What is Permission in Principle — and is it right for your land?

If you own land that might have development potential,one of the first questions worth asking is whether you should test thatpotential before committing to a full planning application. That is exactlywhat Permission in Principle is designed to do.

Permission in Principle — often shortened to PiP — is atype of planning application that establishes three things: whether your landis in an acceptable location for housing, whether residential use isappropriate, and roughly how many homes the site could accommodate. It does notdeal with design, access arrangements or drainage. Those matters come later, ata second stage called Technical Details Consent.

Think of it as splitting one big question into twosmaller ones. The first asks: can this land be developed? The second asks: howshould it be developed? You only invest in the expensive, detailed work oncethe first question is answered.

Why it exists

Before PiP was introduced, the options for testingdevelopment potential were an outline planning application — which requiressubstantial supporting information and professional fees — or a fullapplication, which requires even more. For landowners who simply wanted to knowwhether their land had potential, those options were disproportionate. PiPfills that gap.

How it works

A PiP application is submitted to your local planningauthority. It needs to include the site location, the proposed use(residential), and an indication of the number of dwellings. No designdrawings, transport assessments or ecology surveys are required at this stage.

The local authority must decide within five weeks —considerably faster than a full or outline application. If granted, you canthen submit a Technical Details Consent application covering layout, design,access, drainage and ecology. At that stage the process mirrors a fullapplication, but the principle of development is already established. You arediscussing how, not whether.

What it costs

From April 2026, the PiP application fee is £531 per 0.1hectare. For a typical half-hectare village-edge site, that is around £2,655.Compare that to a full application for five homes at approximately £3,050 infees alone — plus tens of thousands in design work and technical reports.

If PiP is refused, you have lost a modest sum. If it isgranted and you proceed to Technical Details Consent, the TDC fee matches afull application. The combined cost of both stages may slightly exceed a singlefull application. The value is not in saving money overall — it is in thesequencing. You only commit the larger investment once the principle isestablished.

When it is the right first step

PiP is often the most sensible starting point when youbelieve your land may have potential but you are not yet certain. Perhaps thesite sits on the edge of a village and you do not know whether the localauthority would support housing there. PiP lets you find out without a majorfinancial commitment.

It is also useful when you do not yet have a developer, adesign, or a clear idea of the scheme. PiP does not require any of thosethings. The answer alone can be valuable whether you are negotiating with adeveloper, exploring a promotion agreement, or simply trying to understand whatyou own.

Currently, PiP is available for up to nine dwellings. TheGovernment’s draft NPPF, published in December 2025, proposes extending it to anew “medium development” category of 10 to 49 homes on sites up to 2.5hectares. If adopted, this would make PiP relevant to a much wider range ofsites.

When a different route may serve you better

If you already have a developer and a clear scheme,moving straight to a full or outline application avoids the delay of atwo-stage process. PiP is also less suited to sites where access, flood risk orheritage impact are the primary concerns — the local authority may be reluctantto grant PiP without seeing how those issues are resolved.

PiP is residential only. It does not apply to commercialdevelopment or agricultural buildings.

Getting the right advice

Whether to pursue PiP, an outline application or a fullapplication depends on your site, the planning context and what you are tryingto achieve. At DDR & Partners, we assess every site on its merits andrecommend the approach that gives you the best chance of a positive outcomewith the least unnecessary risk.

If you have land in Yorkshire and you are wonderingwhether it has development potential, we are happy to have that conversation.It is free, it comes with no obligation, and it may well be the most usefulthirty minutes you spend on the subject.