Since 2013 it has been possible to secure consent for large office, research, manufacturing distribution, sport and tourism projects by applying for a Development Consent Order (DCO) from the Government, rather than applying to the local authority for planning permission (the indicative threshold for a business or commercial DCO being a gross internal floorspace of at least 40,000 sq m).

A DCO can offer much more than a simple planning permission because it can incorporate a range of other consents, avoiding the need for separate applications. These include rights to undertake street works, identify landowners, enter land for surveys, remove or undertake works to protected trees and hedgerows, override easements, discharge water, and so on.

Critically, a DCO can grant rights to compulsorily purchase land, extinguish private rights over land or impose restrictive covenants. A DCO application can also include a very wide range of ‘associated development’, which might be off site but which is necessary to help deliver the main development.

On 6 April 2017 new rules came into effect in England that allow up to 500 homes to be included in a DCO application. To qualify, the housing must either be functionally related to the construction or operation of the main development but not necessarily on the same site, or ‘in geographical proximity’ to the main project – on or close to the site where the main development will take place.

The DCO application can include development associated with the housing, such as local infrastructure. The level of design detail required for a DCO with housing can be similar to a conventional outline planning application. DCO applications cannot be made for housing alone.

The new rules confirm the government’s confidence in the DCO route as a means of delivering timely consents for large infrastructure and mixed-use projects.

The DCO option won’t suit all projects, but for schemes that meet the qualifying criteria, the combination of a front-loaded, fast-track decision-making process and the ability to include a wide range of supplementary powers and associated development in the application should prove to be a tempting combination for promoters of the largest projects.

Further information

Contact Savills Planning