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PERG 11.3 Guidance on land investment schemes involving planning permission arrangements

Q20. I run a business arranging for the sale of individual plots of development land to investors who are also required to use my services in obtaining planning permission for or disposing of the land as a whole (or both). Might I need to be authorised?

Yes, this is likely to be the case. This will be because the role you have in obtaining planning permission or in negotiating and effecting the sale of the land (or both) may mean that you are operating a collective investment scheme (see Q4). The purpose or effect of the arrangements would appear to be to enable investors, as owners of parts of the land, to receive profits arising from your services in obtaining planning permission or arranging disposal in respect of the land as a whole. If the planning or disposal process is such that individual investors do not have day-to-day control over it, the arrangements are likely to amount to a collective investment scheme, and to operate it you would need to be authorised or exempt. The restrictions on financial promotions referred to in Q18 would also need to be considered.

Q21. I run a business which arranges for individual plots of land to be sold to potential investors and, whilst I refer to the possibility of obtaining planning permission as a way of increasing the value of the land, I don't, nor does anyone connected to me, have a role in pursuing any such permission nor any other control over the land as a whole. Do I need to be authorised?

No. If all of the participants have control over the obtaining of planning permission relevant to their individual plots of land the arrangements will not be a collective investment scheme. Arranging for investment in plots of land by itself is not a regulated activity as plots of land are not of themselves specified investments.