Land and Planning Glossary for Landowners

Terms From a to Z

Adopted highway: A road, footway or verge that the council as highway authority maintains at public expense. Where your land meets the adopted highway directly, access is usually straightforward. The council can confirm where the highway boundary runs. Access and ransom strips
Affordability ratio: The median price of homes in an area divided by the median annual earnings of full-time employees who work there, which the Office for National Statistics publishes for each council every year. The higher the ratio, the less affordable homes are. The government's standard method uses the average of the five most recent ratios to add to an area's housing need where homes are least affordable, so a high ratio means the council must plan for more homes.
Affordable housing: Homes for sale or rent below market prices for people whose needs are not met by the market. Councils require a share of homes on larger sites to be affordable, which affects what a housebuilder can pay for land.
Agricultural Holdings Act tenancy: A farm tenancy granted before 1 September 1995 under the Agricultural Holdings Act 1986. These tenancies give the tenant strong security, sometimes with rights for family members to succeed, so getting vacant possession for development needs careful planning. Tenancies guide
Agricultural Property Relief (APR): Inheritance tax relief on the agricultural value of farmland. It does not cover the extra value land has because of its development potential. From 6 April 2026 full relief is capped at £2.5 million per person, with 50% relief above that. Tax guide
Allocation: Land identified in an adopted local plan as suitable for a particular use, such as housing. Allocation does not grant planning permission but makes it much more likely. Call for sites and local plans
Ancient woodland: Land that has been wooded continuously since at least 1600 AD. Government standing advice treats it as an irreplaceable habitat: permission should be refused for development that would cause its loss or deterioration unless there are wholly exceptional reasons and a suitable compensation strategy, and new development beside it should keep a buffer of at least 15 metres. Ancient woodland on or next to a field therefore shapes where homes can go.
Annex A: The implementation annex of the August 2026 NPPF. It says the NPPF applies to decisions from the day it was published, and that local plan policies materially inconsistent with its national decision-making policies should be given very limited weight unless they were examined and adopted against it. It also says that, for five years after a plan is adopted, a higher standard method figure is not evidence of unmet need where the council can show a five-year housing land supply and a Housing Delivery Test result above 75%. NPPF 2026 guide
Appeal: A challenge to a refusal of planning permission, decided by an inspector from the Planning Inspectorate rather than the council. How long planning takes
Appropriate assessment: The detailed second stage of a habitats regulations assessment, needed when the first check, known as screening, finds that a plan or project risks a likely significant effect on a protected habitats site. Before approving it, the council or other competent authority must be able to rule out all reasonable scientific doubt that it would harm the integrity of the site. Mitigation built into the proposal, such as new green space or a payment towards managing visitors, is taken into account where the authority is sure it will work, so homes near a protected site can still be approved.
Area Action Plan: A plan a council prepares for one particular area, such as a harbour, a town centre or a large growth area, setting out the development it wants there and the policies used to decide applications inside it. Once adopted it forms part of the development plan alongside the local plan, so land within its boundary is judged against its policies. Two or more councils can prepare one jointly where the area crosses their boundary, as Adur and Brighton and Hove did for Shoreham Harbour.
Article 4 direction: A direction made by a council that removes particular permitted development rights in a defined area, so that work or a change of use which would not normally need planning permission does need it. Lincoln has one covering the whole city for turning a family house into a small house in multiple occupation.
Authority Monitoring Report: The report every council must publish at least once a year on its local plan: how work on a new plan is progressing, which policies are not being put into effect, and how many homes, including affordable homes, have been built. Many councils also set out their five-year housing land supply in it, which makes it a useful place to see how a council is doing against its plan.
Base cost: The starting figure used to work out a capital gain. For land you bought it is what you paid plus costs; for land you inherited it is usually the value at the date of death. Tax guide
Best and most versatile agricultural land: Farmland in grades 1, 2 and 3a of the Agricultural Land Classification, the most productive land for crops. Government guidance asks councils to weigh its value and to use poorer quality land in preference where they can, and Natural England must be consulted where a scheme would take a large area of it. Its loss is weighed against the benefits of a scheme rather than ruling development out.
Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG): The legal requirement in England for most new development to leave habitats at least 10% better than before, measured with the statutory biodiversity metric and secured for 30 years. BNG guide
Broad location: A larger area a plan identifies for future development without fixing the exact sites, which are worked out later. Homes in a broad location often take longer to come forward, and national guidance lets councils count broad locations for growth, as well as specific sites, towards the supply they expect in years six to ten of a plan.
Brownfield land register: A public list each council keeps of previously developed sites it considers suitable for housing. Being on it does not grant planning permission, but it shows the council sees potential.
Buffer: An extra margin of homes added to the five years of supply a council must be able to show, moved forward from later in its plan. Under the August 2026 NPPF it is 5% as standard, and 20% where the Housing Delivery Test shows delivery below 85% of the requirement. For decisions only, 20% also applies where a housing requirement adopted in the last five years was examined under a version of the NPPF published before December 2024 and is 80% or less of the standard method figure. NPPF 2026 guide
Business Asset Disposal Relief (BADR): A Capital Gains Tax relief that can reduce the rate on qualifying business disposals to 18% from 6 April 2026, up to a lifetime limit of £1 million of gains. Selling a field on its own rarely qualifies.
Business Property Relief (BPR): Inheritance tax relief on business assets, which can sometimes cover land used in a trading business. It shares the £2.5 million cap on full relief with Agricultural Property Relief.
Call for sites: A council invitation for landowners, promoters and developers to put forward land that could be developed, as part of preparing a local plan. Call for sites guide
Capital Gains Tax (CGT): Tax on the gain made when you sell an asset such as land for more than its base cost. In 2026/27 individuals pay 18% or 24% after a £3,000 annual exempt amount. Tax guide
Class MA: A permitted development right that allows some commercial, business and service buildings to be converted to homes through prior approval rather than a full planning application. Brownfield sites
Class Q: A permitted development right that allows some agricultural buildings to be converted to homes through prior approval, within limits on the number of homes and floorspace. It does not apply in some protected areas. Class Q guide
Coal mining risk assessment: A report by a suitably qualified person on the risk that past coal mining, such as old shafts or shallow workings, poses to a site, with any investigation or remedial work needed. Most planning applications in the coalfield's Development High Risk Area need one; householder applications do not.
Coastal Change Management Area: An area of coast that a council's local plan identifies as likely to be affected by coastal change, such as erosion, where development may not be sustainable in the long term. What can be built inside it is tightly limited. In Great Yarmouth, for example, it is drawn from the Shoreline Management Plan and national erosion mapping to cover the land between today's shoreline and the expected coastline in 2105, and no permanent new homes are allowed inside it.
Combined authority: A legal body that lets two or more neighbouring councils work together and take joint decisions across their boundaries, using powers and funding passed down from national government; many are led by an elected mayor. A combined county authority is the same kind of body for areas with county councils, such as Greater Lincolnshire. Its member councils still prepare local plans and decide planning applications, while the authority may prepare a wider strategy such as a spatial development strategy.
Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL): A charge some councils set on new floorspace to fund local infrastructure. It is paid by the developer and is one of the costs reflected in land value. Section 106 and CIL
Conditional contract: A contract to buy land that only becomes binding if a condition, usually planning permission, is met by a set date.
Conservation area: An area of special architectural or historic interest designated by the council. Development is still possible, but it must preserve or enhance the character of the area.
Core Strategy: The name many councils gave to the main strategic document of their local plan. It sets out the vision for the area, the general location, type and scale of development and the policies that protect what is valued, while detailed policies and site allocations often sit in a separate plan: South Gloucestershire's Core Strategy of December 2013, for example, forms its local plan together with a Policies, Sites and Places plan adopted in 2017. A core strategy is still used to decide applications until a new local plan replaces it, but once it is more than five years old the council's five-year housing land supply is measured against the standard method instead of its housing figures.
Deductions: Costs taken off the market value of land before a landowner's share is calculated under a percentage-based option or a promotion agreement. They should be listed and capped. Promotion fees and deductions
Deliverable site: A housing site that, in the words of the August 2026 NPPF, is available now, offers a suitable location for development now and has a realistic prospect of homes being delivered on it within five years. Only deliverable sites count towards a council's five-year housing land supply. A developable site is one in a suitable location with a reasonable prospect of being available and viably developed at the point expected; plans rely on developable sites, or broad locations for growth, for years six to ten. Call for sites guide
Density: The number of homes per hectare of land. Edge-of-village schemes are often around 30 to 35 homes per net hectare, and national policy sets minimum densities near well-connected stations.
Developed footprint: The continuous built form of a town or village, not counting outlying buildings, gardens, paddocks and other open land on its edge. Some local plans, including the Central Lincolnshire Local Plan and the East Lindsey Core Strategy, use it in place of a settlement boundary: new homes may be supported within it or beside it, and land beyond it is treated as countryside.
Development consent order: The permission for a nationally significant infrastructure project, such as a power station, a major road or a power line, granted under the Planning Act 2008 instead of a planning permission from the council. The applicant applies to the Planning Inspectorate, which examines the proposal, and the relevant Secretary of State makes the final decision. For a landowner it means a large scheme nearby, such as the West Midlands Interchange rail freight terminal in South Staffordshire, is decided nationally rather than by the council.
Duty to cooperate: The legal duty, in section 33A of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, on councils and certain public bodies to engage constructively, actively and on an ongoing basis with each other when preparing local plans on matters that cross their boundaries, housing need above all. Government guidance says that where an inspector finds the duty has not been met, the inspector recommends that the plan is not adopted and the examination goes no further, which is why a failed duty can send a plan back to the start.
Easement: A legal right over someone else's land, such as a right of way. An existing right of way for farm use may not be wide enough, in law, to serve a housing estate. Access and ransom strips
Enterprise Zone: An area the government has designated to encourage business growth, where firms setting up or expanding can receive incentives such as a discount on business rates and enhanced capital allowances on machinery and equipment. Planning inside a zone is often simplified through local development orders.
Environmental Delivery Plan: A plan prepared by Natural England under the Planning and Infrastructure Act that deals with the effect of development on particular protected sites or species across a defined area, such as nutrient pollution, through a programme of conservation measures. A developer who chooses to use it pays the Nature Restoration Levy, worked out from the plan's charging schedule, before development begins, and in return the impact the plan covers is set aside for the environmental obligations it names, such as the habitats regulations assessment of that impact. Using a plan is voluntary in most cases; the first, on nutrient pollution affecting protected sites in Norfolk, went out for consultation in September 2026.
Examination: The independent check of a submitted local plan by a planning inspector, or a panel of inspectors, appointed by the Secretary of State, sometimes called the examination in public. The inspector tests whether the plan is sound and meets the legal requirements, usually through hearing sessions open to the public, where people who commented on the published plan can be invited to speak. The inspector then reports, recommending any main modifications, and the council cannot adopt a plan found unsound. Call for sites guide
Exception test: A second flood risk test that some developments must pass after the sequential test, showing the scheme brings wider benefits and will be safe for its lifetime without increasing flood risk elsewhere. Flood risk guide
Exceptional circumstances: The test a council must meet before it changes Green Belt boundaries, which can only be done through its local plan. Under the August 2026 NPPF they include being unable to meet the identified need for development in full after examining every other reasonable option, such as making as much use as possible of previously developed land, building at higher densities and looking for sites outside the Green Belt. Where a plan identifies land around well-connected stations for development, the test does not need to be met. The NPPF uses the phrase in other tests as well, two of them relevant to landowners: major development inside a National Landscape or National Park should be refused other than in exceptional circumstances and where it is in the public interest, and development outside settlements that fits none of the categories in policy S5 needs them too. Grey belt guide
Executor: The person named in a will to deal with the estate. Executors, and administrators where there is no will, are together called personal representatives, and they are the people who can sell or option land owned by someone who has died. Probate guide
Existing use value (EUV): What land is worth in its current use, for example as farmland, with no expectation of planning permission.
Farm Business Tenancy (FBT): The type of farm tenancy granted on or after 1 September 1995 under the Agricultural Tenancies Act 1995. Its terms are largely what the parties agreed, which usually makes it simpler to end for development than an older tenancy. Tenancies guide
First Homes: Homes sold to first-time buyers at a discount of at least 30% below market value, with the discount and the other restrictions carried over to every later sale. Government guidance of December 2021 counts them as affordable housing. A First Homes exception site is a housing scheme outside the sites allocated in local and neighbourhood plans that provides mainly First Homes, and such sites cannot come forward in the Green Belt, the Broads or designated rural areas. The December 2024 NPPF left councils to judge whether First Homes meet local need, so whether they are asked for now depends on the local plan.
Five-year housing land supply (5YHLS): Whether a council can show enough deliverable housing sites to meet five years of its housing requirement. A shortfall can be evidence of unmet housing need, one of the routes to approving homes outside settlement boundaries under policy S5 of the NPPF. NPPF 2026 guide
Flood risk assessment (FRA): A report prepared for a planning application that looks at every source of flooding affecting a site and shows how the development will be kept safe. Flood risk guide
Flood zone: The Environment Agency's classification of land by the chance of flooding from rivers and the sea. Flood Zone 1 is the lowest risk and Flood Zone 3 the highest. Flood risk guide
Functional floodplain: Land where water has to flow or be stored when rivers or the sea flood, shown in a council's strategic flood risk assessment as Flood Zone 3b. It is the highest category of flood risk, and new homes are not permitted there.
Functionally linked land: Land outside a protected wildlife site, often farmland, that the site's protected birds or other species depend on, for example for feeding or roosting. Because harm to it can harm the protected site itself, a development on such land may need surveys and mitigation under the Habitats Regulations.
Garden community: A new settlement, or a large planned extension of an existing town, designed as a whole with its own homes, jobs, schools, green space and transport links and with arrangements for looking after them in the long term. The government's garden communities programme, which closed to new applications in March 2021, gave the places it accepted funding and delivery advice from Homes England, and called them garden villages or garden towns depending on their size. Meecebrook, north of Stafford, is one: the council secured garden community status for it in 2019.
Gateway 1, 2 and 3: Three checkpoints in the new way of preparing local plans introduced by the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 and the 2026 local plan regulations. At Gateway 1 the council publishes a self-assessment of its readiness after scoping the plan. At Gateway 2, before consulting on the proposed plan, it seeks observations and advice from the Planning Inspectorate. At Gateway 3 the plan is assessed against the legal requirements before it is submitted for examination. Call for sites guide
Golden Rules: The public benefits (extra affordable housing, infrastructure and accessible green space) that major housing schemes on released Green Belt or grey belt land must provide. Grey belt guide
Grampian condition: A planning condition worded in the negative, which stops a development going ahead, or being occupied, until something set out in the condition has happened, such as nitrogen mitigation being put in place. National guidance says it should not be used where there is no prospect of that happening within the life of the permission.
Grant of probate: The court document that confirms an executor's authority to deal with a person's estate. Where there is no will, the equivalent is called letters of administration. Probate guide
Green Belt: A planning designation around many towns and cities that restricts development in order to prevent sprawl and keep towns apart. It is not a description of landscape quality.
Green Belt inset: A town or village surrounded by Green Belt but drawn out of it, so the Green Belt boundary runs around its edge and land inside is treated as part of a settlement rather than as Green Belt. A village left inside the Green Belt is said to be washed over: national policy keeps a village in the Green Belt where its open character makes an important contribution to the openness of the Green Belt, and such a village is not treated as a settlement in the plan's strategy, though limited infilling there is not inappropriate development.
Green wedge: Open land running between or into built-up areas that a local plan protects, in the words of Leicester's plan, to prevent settlements merging, guide the form of development, provide a green lung into the urban area and act as a recreational resource. It is a local designation rather than Green Belt: an inspector deciding a Derby appeal in 2025 noted that green wedges do not have the permanence of Green Belt. Plans usually allow only open uses inside them, such as farming, outdoor sport and recreation, but boundaries can change when a plan is reviewed, and the inspectors examining Leicester's latest plan accepted the loss of green wedge at four strategic housing sites because the need for housing outweighed the impacts.
Grey belt: Green Belt land, whether previously developed or not, that does not strongly contribute to key Green Belt purposes. Housing on it can be approved where the policy tests and Golden Rules are met. Grey belt guide
Habitats Regulations: The Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017, which protect Special Areas of Conservation and Special Protection Areas, known in planning as habitats sites; government policy applies the same protection to Ramsar sites. A plan or project that could significantly affect one of these sites needs a habitats regulations assessment, and the council can only approve it once harm to the integrity of the site has been ruled out. That is why homes near some protected sites need mitigation, such as new green space or nutrient credits, before they can be approved.
Heads of terms: A short, usually non-binding summary of the main terms of a deal, agreed before solicitors draft the full agreement.
Hectare: A metric unit of area equal to 10,000 square metres, or about 2.47 acres. Planning policy and housing densities are usually expressed in hectares.
HELAA: Housing and Economic Land Availability Assessment. The council's assessment of land put forward for development, scoring each site on suitability, availability and achievability. It does not itself allocate land. Some councils call it a SHLAA or SHELAA, or simply a land availability assessment.
Hope value: The extra value land has because of a realistic prospect of getting planning permission in the future, above its existing use value.
House in multiple occupation (HMO): A home rented out to at least three people who are not from one household, such as a family, and who share facilities like a kitchen or bathroom. In planning, a house shared in this way by up to six residents has its own use class, C4, and landlords of larger HMOs, rented to five or more people, need a licence from the council. Some councils use their plans to limit new HMOs where they are concentrated, as Southend-on-Sea's July 2026 draft plan proposed in order to protect family housing.
Housing Delivery Test (HDT): An annual government measure of how many homes a council has delivered over the previous three years against its requirement. Below 95% the council must prepare an action plan, below 85% a 20% buffer applies when its five-year housing land supply is worked out, and below 75% the NPPF treats an unmet need for housing as evidenced for the purposes of policy S5. NPPF 2026 guide
Housing market area: An area defined by where households look for homes and the links between where people live and work, rather than by council boundaries. Neighbouring councils work together to establish it and to plan for housing need across their boundaries, which is how one council's plan can include homes towards a neighbour's shortfall.
Housing trajectory: A council's forecast of when homes will be built over its plan period, and at what rate. The August 2026 NPPF asks plans to include a trajectory showing the expected rate of housing delivery over the plan period and, where appropriate, the expected rate on specific sites, so it shows when the council expects each large allocation to start delivering homes.
Hybrid planning application: A single planning application that asks for full permission for part of a scheme and outline permission for the rest, so that, for example, the access, the main road and a first phase can be approved in detail while the details of later phases are left to reserved matters. The Carrow Works application in Norwich was one: its full part covered the principal access, the primary internal road and conversions of existing buildings, and its outline part the later phases of new homes.
Imperative reasons of overriding public interest (IROPI): One of three tests, known together as a derogation, that can let a plan or project go ahead under the Habitats Regulations even though harm to the integrity of a protected habitats site cannot be ruled out. All three must be met: there must be no feasible alternative that would be less damaging; the project must be essential for reasons of public interest that outweigh the harm, which is this test; and compensatory measures must fully offset the damage to the site. In England the council or other competent authority must notify the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and where a site holds priority habitats or species, reasons other than human health, public safety or important environmental benefits need an opinion from the government.
Infill development: Building on a small gap in an otherwise built-up frontage, such as a plot between houses along a village street. Local plans set their own tests: the Babergh and Mid Suffolk Joint Local Plan, as an inspector summarised it in 2024, defines infill as the filling of a small undeveloped plot in an otherwise built up highway frontage and accepts it outside settlement boundaries where there is a cluster of at least 10 well related dwellings, subject to conditions. In the Green Belt, the August 2026 NPPF treats limited infilling in villages as development that is not inappropriate.
Internal drainage board: A local public body that manages water levels, watercourses and pumping stations in low-lying land within its internal drainage district, such as the Fens and the Humber levels. A development there usually needs the board's consent for works near its watercourses and for any discharge of water into them.
Lapse rate: A discount a council takes off the homes with planning permission it counts in its five-year housing land supply, to allow for permissions it expects will not be built within the five years, most often on small sites. Stafford's statement at 31 March 2026, for example, applied a 10% lapse rate to its small sites with permission to reflect the likelihood that some would not come forward in the period. The higher the lapse rate, the fewer homes the council can count towards its supply.
Lead local flood authority: The council responsible for managing local flood risk, such as flooding from surface water, groundwater and ordinary watercourses: under the Flood and Water Management Act 2010 it is the unitary council where there is one, and otherwise the county council. It must prepare a local flood risk management strategy for its area, and the planning authority must consult it on surface water drainage when deciding proposals for major development. Flood risk guide
Listed building: A building of special architectural or historic interest on the national list. Development that affects a listed building or its setting is judged on the effect on its significance.
Liverpool approach: A way of handling a shortfall in past housing delivery when a council works out its five-year housing land supply: the shortfall is spread over the rest of the plan period instead of being made up in the next five years, which gives a lower five-year requirement. National planning guidance has expected the Sedgefield approach unless a longer period is justified through the local plan.
Local development scheme: The council's published timetable for preparing its local plan and other planning documents, showing when each consultation and stage is expected. Councils preparing a plan under the new plan-making system publish a local plan timetable instead. Call for sites guide
Local housing need: The minimum number of homes a year an area needs, worked out with the government's standard method before any constraints on land are taken into account. The local plan then sets its own housing requirement, and where that requirement is more than five years old, the council's five-year housing land supply is measured against local housing need instead. NPPF 2026 guide
Local Nature Reserve: A nature reserve declared by a local council under the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949, on land the council owns, leases or has an agreement over, for its local importance for wildlife, geology, education or enjoyment. The August 2026 NPPF treats it as a site of local importance for nature: development affecting one should be supported only if it would not have a significant adverse effect on the integrity of the site, or if the benefits of development in that location clearly outweigh the likely impact on what makes the site valuable for nature conservation.
Local plan: The council's statutory plan setting how much development is needed, where it should go and the policies used to decide applications.
Local plan intervention: The Secretary of State's powers to step in when a council's local plan is late or unsatisfactory. Under section 27 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, where a council is failing to do what is needed to prepare, revise or adopt its plan, the Secretary of State can give it directions or prepare or revise the plan instead. Under section 21 the Secretary of State can direct changes to a plan before it is adopted, or call it in for approval. In September 2026, for example, the housing minister used section 27 to require Southend-on-Sea City Council to hand over its unpublished draft plan and its evidence.
Local planning authority: The council responsible for planning in an area, usually the district, borough or unitary council. It prepares the local plan and decides most planning applications. In National Parks, the park authority takes this role.
Local Wildlife Site: An area identified by the council in its development plan for its value for wildlife, without the legal protection of a national designation such as a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Government guidance expects local plans to map these sites and to protect and enhance them, and the August 2026 NPPF applies the same test as for a Local Nature Reserve: development should be supported only if it would not have a significant adverse effect on the integrity of the site, or if its benefits in that location clearly outweigh the likely impact on what makes the site valuable.
Main modifications: Changes to a local plan at examination that the inspector recommends, at the council's request, because they are needed to make the plan sound and legally compliant. Any change that would materially affect one of the plan's policies, including its site allocations, can only be made this way, and the proposed changes go out for public consultation before the inspector reports. After that, the council can make only minor changes when it adopts the plan. Call for sites guide
Major development: For housing, a scheme of 10 or more homes or on a site of 0.5 hectares or more. Major schemes face stricter requirements, including affordable housing.
Material consideration: Any matter that is relevant to a planning decision and must be weighed by the council, such as national policy, the local plan, highway safety, flood risk, design and the effect on neighbours. Loss of a private view is not one.
Minimum price: A floor in an option or promotion agreement below which the landowner's price cannot fall, whatever the market value.
National Landscape: The name since November 2023 for an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). Development affecting them is subject to strict national policy.
National Park: An area protected by law to conserve and enhance its natural beauty, wildlife and cultural heritage and to promote public understanding and enjoyment of it, a designation the government regards as giving the highest status of protection for landscape. Inside a National Park the National Park Authority, not the local council, is the planning authority, so which side of the boundary a field lies on decides who deals with an application. The Broads in Norfolk and Suffolk has equivalent status, with the Broads Authority as its planning authority.
Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP): A very large infrastructure project in England or Wales, such as a major solar farm, power station or road, that needs development consent under the Planning Act 2008 instead of planning permission from the council. The Planning Inspectorate examines the application and makes a recommendation, and the relevant Secretary of State decides whether to grant a development consent order.
Neighbourhood plan: A plan prepared by a parish or town council or neighbourhood forum, approved at a local referendum. Many allocate small housing sites, and once made they form part of the development plan.
Net developable area: The part of a site left for homes and gardens after taking out land for main roads, open space, drainage, habitat and any areas that cannot be built on. It is often well under the total site area.
New town: A town planned and built as a whole, on a large scale, rather than growing piece by piece. Since 1945, 32 new towns have been established in the UK, Milton Keynes among them. The government's draft New Towns Programme of March 2026 proposed a new generation, each a place of at least 10,000 new homes, delivered through bodies such as development corporations that assemble land at scale and coordinate roads, utilities and long-term stewardship; its seven proposed locations include Brabazon in South Gloucestershire and Tempsford in Bedfordshire. The government's New Towns Taskforce said a new town can be a standalone town or an urban extension.
Notice of intention: The formal notice a council publishes, and sends to the government, to start preparing a local plan under the plan-making system that began in 2026. A period of preparation and a first gateway check by the Planning Inspectorate follow, and the plan then has a fixed timetable of about 30 months to adoption.
NPPF: The National Planning Policy Framework, the government's planning policies for England. It was completely rewritten in August 2026. NPPF 2026 guide
Nutrient neutrality: A way of showing that new homes will not add to the nutrient pollution of a protected wildlife site that is already in poor condition because of it. Where Natural England has advised a council of this, homes in the site's catchment can only be approved if the extra nutrients from their wastewater are mitigated, on site or elsewhere in the same catchment, often by buying nutrient credits. It adds cost and time, but mitigation is possible, and some land can itself provide it, for example as new wetland.
Objectively assessed need: The number of homes an area was found to need in the evidence behind older local plans, worked out before the government introduced its standard method. Plans adopted under that approach compare the homes they provide for with this figure, and the gap between the two is often the first sign of how much unmet need a council carries into its next plan. NPPF 2026 guide
Open countryside: The land outside the settlement or development boundaries drawn in a local plan, and outside any Green Belt, where the plan usually supports only development that needs a rural setting, such as farming and other countryside enterprises, renewable energy and the reuse of existing buildings. It is a local plan label rather than a national designation: South Staffordshire's 2024 plan, for example, defines it as the area beyond the West Midlands Green Belt and outside the settlements' development boundaries. Homes there are not ruled out, because policy S5 of the August 2026 NPPF can apply to land well related to a settlement where unmet need is evidenced, and rural exception sites have their own route.
Option agreement: A contract giving a buyer the right, but not the obligation, to buy land within a set period, usually once planning permission is granted, at an agreed price or price formula. Option agreements explained
Option fee: A payment to the landowner on signing an option agreement, in return for granting the option.
Option period: The length of time the option holder has to obtain planning permission and exercise the option.
Outline planning permission: Permission that establishes the principle of development, with details such as design and layout left for later approval as reserved matters. How long planning takes
Overage: An extra payment to the seller if the land later gains a more valuable planning permission or is sold on for more. Overage guide
Permission in principle: An alternative way of getting planning permission for housing-led development, in two stages. The council first decides whether the site is suitable in principle, settling only its location, land use and amount of development, and the design and other technical details are assessed later at the technical details consent stage. A council can grant it on an application or by entering a site in Part 2 of its brownfield land register.
Permitted development: Building work or changes of use allowed nationally without a full planning application, subject to limits and conditions. Some rights need the council's prior approval on specific matters.
Planning Inspectorate: The government agency whose inspectors decide planning appeals and examine local plans.
Policy S4: The national policy in the August 2026 NPPF for development inside settlements. Proposals there should be approved unless the benefits would be substantially outweighed by any adverse effects, judged against the NPPF's national decision-making policies. NPPF 2026 guide
Policy S5: The national policy in the August 2026 NPPF for development outside settlements. It lists the kinds of development that should be approved there unless the benefits would be substantially outweighed by adverse effects. One is housing that meets an evidenced unmet need, on a site physically well related to an existing settlement and of a scale local infrastructure can take. A Housing Delivery Test result below 75% means that need is treated as evidenced; a five-year housing land supply shortfall is evidence of it to be weighed. Policy S5 does not apply in the Green Belt, where the Green Belt policies decide instead. NPPF 2026 guide
Previously developed land (PDL): Land that is or was lawfully occupied by a permanent structure, often called brownfield. It excludes land last occupied by agricultural or forestry buildings. Brownfield sites
Prior approval: A lighter-touch process in which the council checks specific matters, such as transport, flooding or design, for a development allowed under permitted development rights.
Promotion agreement: An agreement where a promoter pays for planning, then sells the land on the open market and takes a fee (commonly a percentage of the net proceeds) plus its costs, with the landowner receiving the balance. Option vs promotion
Public inquiry: The most formal of the three ways the Planning Inspectorate decides a planning appeal, used for the most complex cases, where evidence needs to be tested. An inspector hears each side's witnesses, who can be cross-examined, and the appeal is then decided by the inspector or, where the government has recovered it, by the Secretary of State. The Planning Inspectorate chooses the procedure for each appeal, taking account of the views of the appellant and the council. How long planning takes
Purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA): Blocks built for students to live in, usually as cluster flats with shared kitchens or as self-contained studios, rather than ordinary houses let to students. Nottingham City Council's report of March 2026 describes it as designed for short-term student occupation rather than longer-term residents, and finds that converting it to other uses, such as co-living, will in most cases be a material change of use needing planning permission.
Ramsar site: A wetland of international importance listed under the Convention on Wetlands, known as the Ramsar Convention. Government policy gives Ramsar sites the same habitats regulations assessment as Special Areas of Conservation and Special Protection Areas, so homes that could affect one are judged in the same way.
Ransom strip: A piece of land, sometimes very narrow, that controls access between a development site and a road. Its owner can often ask for a share of the development value in return for access. Access and ransom strips
Recreational disturbance mitigation (RAMS, SAMM): A joint scheme, run by councils around protected coasts, heaths and forests, that collects a set payment for each new home within a zone around the protected sites and spends it on measures that reduce harm from the extra visitors. The schemes go by local names: RAMS on the Suffolk and Essex coasts, GIRAMS across Norfolk, and SAMM, short for strategic access management and monitoring, at Ashdown Forest and elsewhere, where homes may also need SANG. For most schemes in the zone the payment is how that impact is mitigated, so it is a cost to allow for rather than a bar, though larger schemes can also need green space of their own.
Regulation 18: The early consultation stage of a local plan prepared under the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012. The council asks residents, landowners and other bodies what the plan should contain, often through issues and options or draft plan consultations, and it often invites land to be put forward at this stage. Call for sites guide
Regulation 19: The stage, under the 2012 local plan regulations, at which the council publishes the plan it intends to submit for examination. Comments at this stage are limited to whether the plan is legally compliant and sound, and they go to the inspector who examines it. Call for sites guide
Reserve site: Land a local plan allocates for housing but holds back, to be released only if a condition set in the plan is met, for example if allocated sites do not deliver enough homes or a council's Housing Delivery Test result falls. The South East Lincolnshire Local Plan has thirteen of them.
Reserved matters: The details (appearance, landscaping, layout, scale, access) approved after outline planning permission. How long planning takes
Residual valuation: The usual way to value development land: the value of the finished homes, less all the costs of building them, the planning obligations and the developer's profit. What is left is what can be paid for the land. Land value
Restriction: An entry on the HM Land Registry title that stops the land being sold or charged without meeting a condition, often used to protect an option or overage.
Rural exception site: A small site outside a settlement, adjoining it or physically well related to it, where the August 2026 NPPF supports affordable housing to meet identified local needs on land that is not allocated for homes. A proportion of market homes may be allowed where that is essential to deliver the affordable homes without grant funding. It gives land at a village edge a route to permission that does not wait for the local plan.
Safeguarded land: Land that a local plan, when setting Green Belt boundaries, keeps back for development needs well beyond the plan period. It is not allocated for development now and does not form part of the settlement; its status changes only when a plan update proposes releasing it. Grey belt guide
Scoping consultation: The first consultation on a local plan prepared under the new plan-making system, held before the 30-month period for preparing the plan starts. The council asks what the plan should contain and how people want to be involved. Government guidance also asks councils to start finding out what land is available at this early stage, including through a call for sites, though when that call opens varies from council to council. Call for sites guide
Section 106 agreement: A legal agreement tied to a planning permission that secures obligations such as affordable housing, school contributions or open space. Section 106 and CIL
Sedgefield approach: The usual way of handling a shortfall in past housing delivery when a council works out its five-year housing land supply: the whole shortfall since the plan's base date is added to the next five years. National planning guidance has expected it unless the local plan justifies spreading the shortfall over a longer period, known as the Liverpool approach.
Self-build and custom housebuilding: Homes that individuals build or commission for their own occupation, with a say in the final design and layout. Every council keeps a register of people who want to do this and, under the Self-build and Custom Housebuilding Act 2015, must grant permission for enough serviced plots (plots with road access and water, electricity and drainage connections, or the means to provide them) to meet the demand on its register. Some local plans ask larger schemes, and allocated greenfield sites in particular, to include such plots.
Sequential test: A flood risk test that steers new development to land at the lowest risk of flooding first, before land at higher risk is considered. Flood risk guide
Settlement boundary: A line drawn in a local plan around a town or village, inside which development is generally supported. Some councils call it a development boundary or development limits.
Settlement hierarchy: The ranking of a council's towns and villages in its local plan, from the main towns down to the smallest villages, based on their role, services and transport links. It steers where development goes and how much each place is expected to take, and often decides which places have a settlement boundary, though it does not settle the numbers on its own: suitable land, constraints and infrastructure count too. Each plan names its own tiers: the Greater Norwich Local Plan, for example, names Blofield a key service centre and groups other villages into village clusters.
Shoreline Management Plan: A long-term plan for managing flooding and erosion along a stretch of the English coast to 2105. For each length of coast it sets one of four approaches: hold the line with defences, advance the line, managed realignment, or no active intervention, where the coast is left to change naturally. The policy for the stretch nearest a site shapes whether land there can be developed, and councils use these plans when drawing Coastal Change Management Areas.
Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI): Land protected by law for its wildlife, plants or geology. Development on or near an SSSI faces strong protection.
Spatial development strategy: A plan for an area larger than one council, such as a city region, setting out the planning policies of strategic importance there: how much housing, including affordable housing, should be provided and how it should be distributed, and the infrastructure the area needs. The Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 requires strategic planning authorities, such as combined authorities, to prepare one, but it must not pick out particular sites for development, which is left to local plans. The Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, for example, is preparing one for Halton and its neighbours, looking ahead at least 15 years.
Special Area of Conservation (SAC): A protected area designated under the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017 for habitats and species listed in the Habitats Directive. Together with Special Protection Areas these sites form the national site network, and a plan or project that could significantly affect one needs a habitats regulations assessment. Homes nearby can still be approved once harm to the site is ruled out, often with mitigation.
Special Protection Area (SPA): A protected area for wild birds, classified under the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017, including for regularly occurring migratory species. Together with Special Areas of Conservation these sites form the national site network, so a plan or project that could significantly affect one needs a habitats regulations assessment. Near protected coasts and heaths, new homes often pay towards managing the extra visitors, which is how that harm is avoided.
Standard method: The government's formula for the minimum number of homes each council should plan for each year, set out in Annex D of the NPPF. It starts from 0.8% of the homes already in the area and adds more where homes are least affordable. Where a local plan's housing requirement is more than five years old, the council's five-year housing land supply is measured against this figure instead. NPPF 2026 guide
Statement of common ground: A written record of what two sides agree on. In plan-making it records the progress councils and other strategic policy-making bodies have made on the strategic matters that cross their boundaries, showing where cooperation is and is not happening, and it is kept up to date throughout the preparation of a plan. At a planning appeal heard at a hearing or inquiry, the appellant drafts one containing the facts about the proposal it reasonably considers the council will not dispute, so that the evidence concentrates on the real differences between them.
Statutory biodiversity credits: Credits sold by the government as a last resort for developers who cannot meet Biodiversity Net Gain on site or through off-site units. They are priced deliberately high. BNG guide
Stepped housing requirement: A housing requirement in a local plan that changes during the plan period, often starting lower and rising later, instead of one flat yearly figure. National guidance says it may suit a plan whose large sites will be built in phases or later in the plan period, and while it applies the Housing Delivery Test measures delivery against the stepped figures.
Strategic gap: Open land between two towns or villages that a local plan protects from development that would shrink the gap or reduce its openness, so that the places keep their separate identities. It is a local designation, separate from Green Belt, and the August 2026 NPPF says such designations should be used only where needed to keep settlements apart, be no larger than that requires, and not apply to land in the Green Belt.
Strategic land: Land without planning permission that is being brought forward for development over the longer term, usually through the local plan.
Strategic wedge: A local plan designation that keeps open land between towns or villages so that they do not merge. North East Lincolnshire uses the term: development inside a wedge is refused unless it would not harm the wedge's purposes or needs to be there.
Suitable Alternative Natural Greenspace (SANG): Green space, newly created or newly opened to the public, set aside so that residents of new homes walk there instead of on a nearby protected heath, such as the Thames Basin Heaths or Ashdown Forest. Natural England's guidelines say it must be in place before the homes it serves are occupied and funded in perpetuity. A scheme can provide its own SANG, sometimes on part of the same holding, or pay towards a council's SANG instead.
Supplementary Planning Document (SPD): Guidance a council adopts to add detail to the policies of its adopted local plan. It does not form part of the development plan and cannot introduce new planning policies, though it is a material consideration when applications are decided. In its July 2023 consultation on the new plan-making system under the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023, the government said supplementary planning documents would be replaced by supplementary plans, which would carry the same weight as a local plan and be consulted on and examined.
Sustainability appraisal: An assessment carried out while a local plan is prepared of how far its policies and sites would help achieve sustainable development, compared with the realistic alternatives the council could have chosen. It is published alongside the plan and tested at examination.
Sustainable drainage (SuDS): Ways of managing rainwater on a development, such as ponds, swales and permeable paving, so that water runs off no faster than it did before the homes were built. Flood risk guide
Sustainable urban extension: A large, planned expansion of a town onto land at its edge, often thousands of homes with the roads, schools, shops and open space the new neighbourhood needs, built in phases over many years. The August 2026 NPPF names major urban extensions among the broad locations for growth that strategic plans identify.
Tilted balance: An informal name for the presumption in favour of sustainable development as it applied, under paragraph 11(d) of the versions of the NPPF before August 2026, where a council's most important policies were out of date, including where it could not show a five-year housing land supply or its Housing Delivery Test result was below 75%. Permission was then to be granted unless the adverse impacts would significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits, or a policy protecting a particular area or asset gave a strong reason to refuse. Appeal decisions and council statements from before August 2026 still use the term; the August 2026 NPPF sets the presumption out in policies S3 to S5. NPPF 2026 guide
Title plan: The HM Land Registry map showing the extent of a registered property, usually edged in red.
Unilateral undertaking: A planning obligation under section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 that the applicant, or another person with an interest in the land, enters into alone, without the council being a party to it. It secures the same kinds of obligation as a section 106 agreement, such as a contribution towards infrastructure or the mitigation of a scheme's effects, but because the council is not a party it cannot bind the council. Section 106 and CIL
Unitary authority: A council that provides all the local government services in its area, instead of sharing them with a county council as district, borough and city councils do in two-tier areas. It is the local planning authority for its whole area, preparing the local plan and deciding planning applications, and it also takes on the county council's roles there, such as being the lead local flood authority.
Unmet housing need: Housing need that a council is not meeting. Under policy S5 of the August 2026 NPPF, a council scoring below 75% in the Housing Delivery Test is treated as having evidenced unmet need. NPPF 2026 guide
Urban uplift: An addition of 35% that the government's standard method for housing need applied, from December 2020, to the 20 most populous cities and urban centres in England, with the expectation that the extra homes would normally be provided within those cities. The December 2024 revision of the method removed it. Plans examined while it applied, and Housing Delivery Test results measured against it, can still reflect it, so their figures for some cities can sit well above today's local housing need.
Vacant possession: Handing over land free of occupiers and tenancies on completion. Tenancies guide
Valued landscape: A landscape without a national designation that is judged to have qualities lifting it above ordinary countryside, so that its value is weighed when plans are made and applications decided. The Dedham Vale National Landscape partnership, for example, treats parts of the Stour Valley upstream of the National Landscape as a valued landscape, while noting that they do not have its statutory protection.
Viability assessment: An appraisal testing whether a scheme can afford all the policy requirements, such as affordable housing, while still giving a reasonable return to the landowner and developer. Section 106 and CIL
Village cluster: A group of neighbouring villages that a local plan treats as one unit when deciding how much new housing the villages should take. In the Greater Norwich Local Plan, the clusters under policy 7.4 are drawn around primary school catchments, and the growth allowed in each cluster reflects the capacity of its primary school.
Visibility splay: The triangle of land at a junction that must be kept clear so drivers can see approaching traffic. Its size depends on road speeds, and it must be on land the developer controls or on highway land. Access and ransom strips
Water Protection Zone: An area where the Environment Agency can set its own controls on land use and polluting activities to protect a river or other water body, under section 93 of the Water Resources Act 1991. It has been proposed for the River Wye catchment to cut phosphate pollution.
Windfall: A housing site that comes forward without being identified in the development plan, such as an infill plot, a redundant building or a small yard. A council can count an allowance for windfalls in its housing supply where there is compelling evidence that they will keep coming forward.
World Heritage Site: A place inscribed by UNESCO's World Heritage Committee under the 1972 World Heritage Convention for its outstanding universal value, such as the Ironbridge Gorge in Telford and Wrekin. Proposals that would affect a World Heritage Site or its setting are weighed with great care.

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