Regulation 19 - Proposed Draft Local Plan Submission

Glossary

Affordable Housing: Housing for sale or rent, for those whose needs are not met by the market (including housing that provides a subsidised route to home ownership and/or is for essential local workers); and which complies with one or more of the following definitions:

• Social Rented Homes – homes owned by local authorities or private registered providers for which rents are determined by the national rent regime (through which a formula rent is determined by the relative value and size of a property and relative local income levels). They are low-cost rented homes.
• Affordable Rented Homes – let by local authorities or private registered providers to households who are eligible for social housing. Affordable rents are set at no more than 80% of the local market rent (including service charges).
• Rent-to-Buy – homes offered, typically by Housing Associations, to working households at an intermediate rent which does not exceed 80% of the local market rent (including service charges) for a fixed period after which the household has the chance to buy the home.
• Shared Ownership – a form of low-cost market housing where residents own a share of their home, on which they typically pay a mortgage, with a registered provider owning the remainder, on which they pay a subsidised rent.
• Discounted Market Sale – a home which is sold at a discount of at least 20% below local market value to eligible households; with provisions in place to ensure that housing remains at a discount for future households (or the subsidy is recycled).

Area of Separation: Landwhere the potential risk of two or more settlements merging is at its greatest whether this is between settlements or settlements and nearby employment areas. The function of these areas is to ensure that development does not harmfully reduce the separation between settlements or between settlements and employment areas. Areas of Separation aim to preserve separate identities and prevent coalescence or merging of two areas.

Authority Monitoring Report (AMR): Document that assesses the extent to which the adopted Local Plan and any other relevant local legislative policies, are being successfully implemented.

Business Use: Office, light industrial, non-strategic (small scale) warehousing and distribution uses

Biodiversity: The whole variety of life encompassing all genetics, species and ecosystem variations, including plants and animals.

Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG): A way of creating and improving natural habitats. BNG makes sure development has a measurably positive impact ('net gain') on biodiversity, compared to what was there before development. In England, BNG has become mandatory under Schedule 7A of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (as inserted by Schedule 14 of the Environment Act 2021). Developers must deliver a Biodiversity Net Gain of not less than 10%. This means a development will result in more or a better-quality natural habitat than there was before development occurred.

Building Regulations: Statutory Instruments governing the standards required for buildings and structures.

Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM): BREEAM was first published by the Building Research Establishment (BRE) and is now an established method of assessing, rating and certifying the sustainability of buildings. It assesses scientifically based criteria covering a range of issues in categories that evaluate energy and water use, health and wellbeing, pollution, transport, materials, waste, ecology and management processes. Buildings are rated and certified on a scale of: 'Pass', 'Good', 'Very Good', 'Excellent' and 'Outstanding'.

Community Facilities: Facilities that serve the community including hospitals and other health facilities, nurseries, schools and other education facilities, places of worship, cultural facilities such as museums, post offices, village shops, public houses and libraries.

Coalescence The merging or coming together of separate towns or villages to form a single entity.

Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL): A charge which aims to ensure that costs incurred in providing infrastructure to support the development of an area are partly met by landowners who have benefited from the increase in land value when planning permission is granted.

Conservation Area: Areas of special architectural or historic interest, designated under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990, whose character and appearance should be preserved or enhanced.

Contaminated Land: Defined under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 as any land which appears to the Local Authority in whose area it is situated to be in such a condition, by reason of substances in, on or under the land, that: (a) significant harm is being caused, or there is a significant possibility of such harm being caused; or (b) significant pollution of controlled waters is being caused, or there is a significant possibility of such pollution being caused. Contamination may occur through heavy metals; oils and tars; chemical substances; gases; asbestos; radioactive substances; or can also occur naturally as a result of the geology of the area, or through agricultural use.

Density: In the case of residential development, a measurement of the number of dwellings within a specific site/land. It is commonly expressed as dwellings per hectare; with net dwellings per hectare representing the density of the developable area only, thereby excluding land for infrastructure, open space, main roads, schools and community facilities.

Designated Heritage Asset: A World Heritage Site, Scheduled Monument, Listed Building, Protected Wreck Site, Registered Park and Garden, Registered Battlefield or Conservation Area designated under the relevant legislation.

Developer Contributions: A contribution, typically secured through a legal agreement or undertaking, made by a developer towards securing policy requirements, such as for affordable housing or local infrastructure such as public open space and public transport provision.

Development Plan: Defined in Section 38 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 and includes adopted Local Plans, Neighbourhood Plans that have been made, and published spatial development strategies, together with any regional strategy policies that remain in force. Neighbourhood Plans that have been approved at referendum are also part of the development plan unless the Local Planning Authority decides that the Neighbourhood Plan should not be made.

District centre Will usually comprise groups of shops often containing at least one supermarket or superstore, and a range of non-retail services, such as banks, building societies and restaurants, as well as local public facilities such as a library.

Flood Zones: Areas identified based on their probability for flooding by the Environment Agency.

Geodiversity: Incorporates all the variety of rocks, minerals and landforms and the processes which have formed these features throughout geological time.

Green / Wildlife Corridor: Areas of habitat connecting different wildlife populations and species.

Green and Blue Infrastructure (GBI): A network of multi-functional green and blue spaces and other natural features, urban and rural, which is capable of delivering a wide range of environmental, economic, health and wellbeing benefits for nature, climate, local and wider communities and prosperity.

Green Wedge: open areas around and between parts of settlements that maintain the distinction between the countryside and built up areas, preventing the coalescence (merging) of adjacent places. They can provide access from urban areas into green spaces as well as recreational opportunities.

Groundwater Source Protection Zones: Used to define areas close to drinking water sources where the risk associated with groundwater contamination is greatest. They are not statutory designations but do relate to distances and zones defined in legislation where certain activities are restricted.

Heritage Asset: A building, monument, site, place, area or landscape/townscpe identified as having a degree of significance meriting consideration in planning decisions, because of its heritage interest. It includes designated heritage assets and assets identified by the Local Planning Authority (including local listing).

Historic Environment: All aspects of the environment resulting from the interaction between people and places through time, including all surviving physical remains of past human activity, whether visible, buried or submerged, and landscaped and planted or managed flora.

Landscape Character Assessment: An assessment which identifies different landscape areas which have a distinct character based on a recognisable pattern of elements, including combinations of geology, landform, soils, vegetation, land use and human settlement.

Listed Building: A building of special architectural or historic interest. Listed buildings are graded I, II* or II, with Grade I being the highest. Listing includes the interior as well as the exterior of the building, and any buildings or permanent structures within the curtilage of the Listed Building.

Local Centre: Include a range of small shops of a local nature, serving a small catchment. Typically, local centres might include, amongst other shops, a small supermarket, a newsagent, a sub-post office and a pharmacy. In rural areas, large villages may perform the role of a local centre.

Local Green Space: Local Green Space designation is a way to provide special protection against development of green areas that have particular importance to local communities.

Leicester Urban Area: The main settlement, in this case Leicester, which has the highest level of services, including retail, hospitals, employment and higher education.

Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS): Local nature recovery strategies are a system of spatial strategies for nature and environmental improvement required by law under the Environment Act 2021. Each strategy must agree priorities for nature's recovery, map the most valuable existing areas for nature, map specific proposals for creating or improving habitats for nature, and wider environmental goals.

Local Nature Reserve: A publicly accessible area controlled and designated by a local authority as an area important for wildlife.

Local Transport Plan (LTP): Sets out Leicestershire County Council's local transport strategies and policies, and an implementation programme.

Local Wildlife Site (LWS): Identified and selected locally using robust, scientifically determined criteria and detailed ecological surveys.

Major Development: The government defines major development in terms of a planning application as 10 or more dwellings or the site having an area of 0.5 ha or more. For non-residential development, it means additional floorspace of 1,000 sqm or more, or a site area of 1 ha or more.

Main Town Centre uses: Retail development (including warehouse clubs and factory outlet centres); leisure, entertainment and more intensive sport and recreation uses (including cinemas, restaurants, drive-through restaurants, bars and pubs, nightclubs, casinos, health and fitness centres, indoor bowling centres and bingo halls); offices; and arts, culture and tourism development (including theatres, museums, galleries and concert halls, hotels and conference facilities).

Neighbourhood Plans or Neighbourhood Development Plans: Neighbourhood Development Plans, introduced in the Localism Act 2011, become part of the Development Plan and the policies contained within them are then used in the determination of planning applications. Plans are 'made' following an examination by a Planning Inspector and a referendum of the local community.

Non-strategic Storage and Distribution: Commercial buildings in B8 Class Storage and Distribution use (often referred to as warehouses) as defined by the Town and Country (Use Classes) Order 1987 (as amended) where the individual unit size is 9,000 sqm. gross floorspace or below.

Open Space: All space of public value, including public landscaped areas, playing fields, parks and play areas, including not just land but areas of water such as rivers, canals, lakes and reservoirs, which can offer opportunities for sport and recreation or can act as a visual amenity and a haven for wildlife.

Passive design: Relies on using natural light and warmth from the sun to warm and light a building. In general, the building would not require a heating or cooling system.

Passivhaus: The heating requirement in a Passivhaus is reduced to the point where a traditional heating system is no longer considered essential. Cooling is also minimised by the same principles and through the use of shading and in some cases via the pre-cooling of the supply air.

Permitted Development Rights: Where the need for planning permission is removed, subject to local authority conditions and the terms set out in the Town and Country Planning Act, 1990.

Pitch: Area of land on a Gypsy and Traveller caravan site developed for a single family (a group of related people who live and/or travel together – assumed to be the basic unit when assessing accommodation requirements). A single pitch will often need to contain more than one caravan.

Planning Condition: Conditions can enhance the quality of development and enable development proposals to proceed where it would otherwise have been necessary to refuse planning permission.

Policies Map: A map on an Ordnance Survey map base, which shows the geographical application of development plan policies including explanations of symbols used.

Priority Habitats and Species: Species and Habitats of Principal Importance included in the England Biodiversity List published by the Secretary of State under section 41 of the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006.

Proposed Submission Regulation 19 Local Plan: Regulation 19 of the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) Regulations 2012 requires the publication of the Proposed Submission Local Plan for a statutory minimum 6-week period to allow comments and representations to be received prior to submission for independent examination.

Renewable Energy: Energy that is derived from a source that does not run out. These include solar, wind, wave, hydro and biomass.

Registered Provider: A provider of low-cost market housing for rent or sale which is accessible to people on low incomes and below the minimum cost of local market housing. Typically, these are Housing Associations and Councils.

Regulation 18 Local Plan and Consultation: Regulation 18 of the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) Regulation 2012 requires that various bodies and stakeholders be notified that the council is preparing a plan. It invites them to comment about what the plan ought to contain. The Regulation 18 consultation marks the start of a statutory 6-week minimum engagement period and represents the scoping stage to decide what should be included in the Local Plan.

Riparian Zone: A set area from the bank top of the watercourse, which is the point where there is a break in slope between the river channel and the surrounding land.

Scheduled Monument: Nationally important monuments, usually archaeological remains, that enjoy greater protection against inappropriate development through the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979.

Section 106 Agreement: A legal agreement under section 106 of the 1990 Town and Country Planning Act between a planning authority and a developer, or undertakings offered unilaterally by a developer, to ensure that certain extra works related to a development are undertaken.

Self-build and custom-build housing: Housing built by an individual, a group of individuals, or persons working with or for them, to be occupied by that individual. Such housing can be either market or affordable housing. A legal definition, for the purpose of applying the Self-build and Custom Housebuilding Act 2015 (as amended), is contained in section 1(A1) and (A2) of that Act.

Significance (for heritage): The value of a heritage asset to this and future generations because of its heritage interest. This interest may be archaeological, architectural, artistic or historic. Significance derives not only from a heritage asset's physical presence, but also from its setting.

Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI): A site identified under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (as amended by the Countryside and Rights of Way Act, 2000) as an area of special interest by reason of any of its flora, fauna, geological or physio graphical features (plants, animals, and natural features relating to the earth's structure).

Specialist housing for older people: Forms of sheltered or extra care accommodation where the occupiers receive care and assistance of some kind but live in self-contained dwellings and have a degree of independence. It is included in the C3 Use Class – 'dwelling houses', rather than Use Class C2 – 'residential institutions', although some accommodation within C2 can be provided as part of the same development. On-site communal facilities may be provided, and properties can be rented, owned or part owned/rented.

Specialist/supported housing for other needs groups: Where the occupiers receive care and assistance and support that allows for/encourages independent living in self-contained dwellings/ homes generally included in C3 use class – dwelling houses although some provision in residential/block schemes can be provided within C2 class with communal facilities and in-house support. Properties can be rented, owned or part owned/rented.

Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA): A process which requires the identification and evaluation of the impacts a plan is likely to have on the environment and by which environmental considerations are required to be fully integrated into the preparation of certain plans.

Strategic Storage and Distribution: Commercial buildings in B8 Class Storage and Distribution use (often referred to as warehouses) as defined by the Town and Country (Use Classes) Order 1987 (as amended) where the individual unit size is over 9,000 square metres (approximately 100,000 square foot), this being a standard recognised definition within the commercial property sector.

Statement of Community involvement (SCI): Document setting out when, with whom, and how consultation will be undertaken on Local Development Documents.

Sustainability Appraisal (SA): A process by which the economic, social and significant environmental impacts of a project, strategy or plan are assessed. The aim of the appraisal process is to avoid or mitigate significant adverse impacts.

Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS): Designed to control surface water run-off close to where it falls and mimic natural drainage as closely as possible. They provide opportunities to: reduce the causes and impacts of flooding; remove pollutants from urban run-off at source; and combine water management with green space with associated benefits for amenity, recreation and wildlife.

Town Centre: Usually, the second level of centres after city centres and, in many cases, they will be the principal centre in a local authority's area. In rural areas they are likely to be market towns and other centres of similar size and role which function as important service centres, providing a range of facilities and service for extensive rural catchment areas.

Travel Plan or Green Travel plan: A travel plan aims to promote sustainable travel choices (for example, cycling) as an alternative to single-occupancy car journeys that may impact negatively on the environment, congestion and road safety. Travel plans can be required when granting planning permission for new developments.

Urban Fringe: The transitional area between urban areas and the countryside. It can provide a valuable resource for the provision of sport and recreation, particularly in situations where there is an absence of land within urban areas to meet such provision.

Use Classes Order: The Town and Country Planning (Use Classes Order), 1987, as amended, specifies various classes of use for buildings or land. The Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015 (as amended) identifies some permitted development rights allowing the change of use from one class to another, subject to conditions, limitations and/or a prior approval process.

Water Framework Directive: Directs that development and agriculture operations should not impact upon water quality in rivers, streams and lakes. Where possible quality should be improved by controlling run-off.

Water Stress: Occurs when demand for drinking water is high, or projected to grow significantly, and the amount of rainfall is insufficient to meet demand.

Windfall Development Sites: Sites that are developed during the plan period which have not been specifically identified in the development plan.