Planning permission to develop back gardens

The latest version of the Government's Planning Policy Statement 3 (PPS3) Housing, published in June 2010, made two main changes to planning policy for housing development:

1. The definition of Previously Developed Land (often referred to as brownfield land) has been altered to exclude land in built up areas such as private residential gardens (see Annex B: Definitions of PPS3);
2. The national indicative minimum density of 30 dwellings per hectare has been deleted from paragraph 47.

Paragraph 36 of PPS3 states: "The priority for development should be previously developed land, in particular vacant and derelict sites and buildings".  That does not mean that the development of private residential garden land is unacceptable in principle rather that previously developed land should be the first choice for housing development.  The guidance in PPS3 does not state that land excluded from the definition of previously developed land should, or should not, be developed.

Page updated: January 2012