Planning Portal Blog

House-building booms

House-building in England during 2014-15 was up by 25 per cent on the previous year, according to official figures.

Data released last week by the Department for Communities and Local Government also showed the highest annual percentage increase in net additional homes for 28 years.

In addition the statistics indicated that the number of Right to Buy sales had risen by five per cent over the preceding 12 months.

These figures showed that annual housing supply in England amounted to 170,690 net additional dwellings in 2014-15, a 25 per cent increase in net additional dwellings from 2013-14.

The 170,690 net additions figure for 2014-15 comprised 155,080 new build homes, 4,950 additional homes resulting from conversions, 20,650 additional homes resulting from change of use, 630 other gains and a loss of 10,610 homes through demolitions.

Since 2010 there has been a net increase in housing supply of 704,310 new dwellings across England. The Government claimed the figures were evidence that changes to housing and planning policy was having an impact.

Blackpool Airport gains Enterprise Zone status

Blackpool Airport has been given Enterprise Zone status. This will pave the way for the first planning application to be submitted, a proposal for energy headquarters for Lancashire.

Enterprise Zone status, which comes into effect in April 2016, will transform the area into a key employment site with the potential of nearly 140 new businesses and as many as 3,000 new jobs up to 2030.

The airport, which shut last year, has become a new arm of the Lancashire Enterprise Zone currently made up of sites in Warton and Salmesbury.

The Blackpool Airport corridor site provides five development zones capable of supporting some 175,000 square metres of activity.

The layout of the site has been designed so that commercial airport use of the site in the future remains a possibility, particularly with proposals for a new passenger terminal and the runway remaining in place The green belt status of some areas of the site is unaffected by the EZ designation.

Chippenham sites plan criticised by inspector

Wiltshire Council has agreed to review key elements of a draft site allocations plan for Chippenham after a planning inspector raised “fundamental concerns” over the adequacy of the site selection procedure adopted by the planning authority.

At issue was the ranking exercise used, the adequacy of the sustainability appraisal and question marks over deliverability.

The inspector said substantial further information and work was needed which meant the public examination should be suspended for perhaps six months.

A Wiltshire Council spokesman said: “We followed an approach agreed by a previous core strategy inspector. However it became apparent early on that this inspector had concerns with elements of the process.

“The council remains committed to delivering a plan and is keen to develop a process that fully allays the inspector’s concerns. We are considering our response and expect to respond to the inspector around the end of the month.”

Fund to tackle ‘beds-in-sheds’

Ministers have announced a new £5m fund to help councils tackle rogue landlords and crack-down on ‘beds in sheds’. Councils can use the money to:

Increase inspections of property
Carry out more raids
Initiate more enforcement action and prosecutions
Demolish sheds and buildings that are prohibited.

Turbine trouble in Scotland and England

Scottish minsters have refused consent for a 22 turbine wind farm located at Sallachy and Duchally estate in central Sutherland and a 23 turbine wind farm situated at Glencassley Estate, by Lairg also in Sutherland.

Ministers decided the projects would have an unacceptable impact on a National Scenic Area (NSA) and the Reay-Cassley wild land area.

Meanwhile south of the Border Communities Secretary Greg Clark has refused another two onshore wind projects.

This time the schemes, each for a single turbine, were on neighbouring farms at Thorpe Satchville near Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire. Both had also been the subject of a legal challenge.

In the case of the proposal for Hall Farm, which had been built, the inspector who had held both recovered appeal hearings had recommended the appeal should be successful. In respect of the Park Farm scheme he recommended dismissal of the scheme.

Clark determined that neither turbine should be allowed, citing conflict with local development policies, the cumulative effect when taken into consideration with other projects and the fact local concerns had not been addressed.

Elkesley neighbourhood plan

Three more neighbourhood plans voted through

Three more neighbourhood plans made the grade last week after referendums including one (for Elkesley in Nottinghamshire) which was the first for anywhere in that county and the first involving Bassetlaw District Council. On a 36 per cent turn-out the strategy polled a swingeing 93 per cent in favour.

The other two plans were for South Wootton in west Norfolk and Ringmer near Lewes in East Sussex. The former polled 90 per cent approval on a 23 per cent turn-out. The latter came home comfortably with 92 per cent voting yes on a turn-out of 42 per cent.

View more information on the local plans:

South Wootton Parish neighbourhood plan

Ringmer neighbourhood plan

Transport moves

A multi-million pound project to extend the Nottingham tram system to Derby is being treated as a “priority” for the devolution package under consideration by East Midlands local authorities The tram scheme, which currently serves the Nottingham area, would also run to East Midlands Airport and the proposed HS2 station at Toton.
Oxfordshire County Council has started consulting on two route options for a so-called South East Perimeter Road in Bicester. The new road would support employment and housing growth in the town and relieve pressure on the A41.
Leeds City Council starts public consolations shortly on three options for improving access to Leeds Bradford Airport. Two would see the creation of a new link road while the alterative would involve widening existing roads and upgrading junctions. The project could cost between £15m and £75m.
A 46-strong team has been appointed as the independent design panel that will support the High Speed 2 (HS2) project. The Panel is chaired by Sadie Morgan, a founding director of dRMM Architects who will act as the project’s independent advisor.
Bath and North East Somerset Council has agreed in principle on a new park-and-ride site on the outskirts of the city but has deferred a decision of the exact location at Bathampton Meadows. The council will review the three alternatives. Local residents are concerned the proposed facility could compromise Bath’s World Heritage Site status.

Energy developments

Plans for a major new energy infrastructure project linking Great Britain’s electricity transmission network to France will go on display at a number of venues in the Fareham and Gosport areas of Hampshire. The high voltage direct current (HVDC) 1,000 megawatt power link will involve sub-sea cables under the Channel between Hampshire and Normandy and a convertor station at the Daedalus airfield near Fareham.
Doncaster Council has voiced concern over potential health and safety issues at the Hatfield Colliery site in the wake of Historic England’s decision to spot-list the former colliery’s two headstocks as Grade 11 structures. The South Yorkshire planning authority says it faces a £1m bill to make the structures safe. They were due to be demolished.
Hinkley & Bosworth Borough Council has approved proposals for two separate solar power projects on Leicestershire farmland with a combined capacity of nearly nine megawatts.

New Truro stadium inches closer

Communities Secretary Greg Clark has decided not to call-in proposals for a new 4,000-seater stadium which Truro City Football Club wants to build which would be paid for by the redevelopment of its existing home in Treyew Road as a retail park.

SuDS advice

What is claimed to be the UK’s most comprehensive guidance on Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SuDS) has just been published by construction industry body CIRIA. The advice focuses on the cost-effective planning, design, construction, operation and maintenance of SuDS.

Space shaping

Fields in Trust, the successor to the National Playing Fields Association, has published its latest and most up to date guide to open space provision and design.

Called ‘Guidance for Outdoor Sport and Play: Beyond the Six Acre Standard’ the publication is aimed at local planning authorities, developers, planners, urban designers and landscape architects involved in the planning and design of outdoor sport, play and informal open space.

Reading BC mulls further controls on HMOs in conservation areas

Further measures to curb the number of Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMO) in Reading’s conservation areas are being considered by the borough council. These include the making of a ‘non-immediate Article 4 Direction’ to remove permitted development rights to convert property into HMOs.

While this will not ban the future creation of HMOs it means planning permission will be required. There is already an Article 4 Direction in place for the Jesse Terrace area covering all external alterations.

Kent round-up

An egg producer has withdrawn plans to build a huge chicken farm in Kent big enough to accommodate 64,000 birds. The company, Fridays Ltd, has decided not to proceed with the scheme earmarked for a site on the outskirts of Hormonden claiming the local planning authority, Tunbridge Wells Borough Council, wanted further technical material to support the application.
Sevenoaks District Council has announced it is starting work on a new master plan as part of proposals to regenerate Swanley and Hextable which will include a major revamp of Swanley’s town centre and its ageing shopping centre. The council has been approached by U + I Group (formerly called Development Securities) the major landowner in Swanley town centre. The company has signalled interest in redeveloping the centre with a mix of retail and business space as well as new housing and a new hotel.

Capital development

Kingston Council has confirmed that a developer is eyeing up the possibility of building hundreds of flats as well as providing a swimming pool, leisure centre and a football pitches at the Chessington Golf Centre which is located in green belt on the south west flank of London.
Haringey Council has announced plans to create a company to help build 5,000 new homes across 20 different council sites in Tottenham and Wood Green in north London.
The City of London Corporation has approved Lipton Rogers’ 62-storey skyscraper proposed for 22 Bishopsgate in the heart of the Square Mile.

Legal round-up

The Court of Appeal has granted Central Bedfordshire Council permission to appeal against a judge’s decision to refuse permission for judicial review after a planning inspector found that the authority had failed to comply with duty to cooperate when preparing its local plan.
The High Court last week heard a challenge brought by the French Government over the validity of certificates of lawfulness issued by the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea for works to the basement of a property next door to the French embassy. The owners of the property (the former Soviet mission) are Jon Hunt, founder of the Foxtons estate agency, and his wife Lois. They intend to house their collection of vintage cars in the expanded basement.
Three separate groups of campaigners are using the Crowd Justice website in a bid to fund legal battles over renewable energy projects. Two are in Devon (at Harberton and on the Frogmore Estuary) while the third is the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire.
A High Court judge has dismissed a judicial review challenge over the introduction of a so-called ‘mini- Holland’ cycling scheme in north-east London drawn up by Waltham Forest Council with £27m of funding from Transport for London secured in 2014. The project is intended to make the borough more cycle friendly and encourage more people to take up cycling and walking.

Bath bridge

A French architect has won the competition to design a new bridge across the River Avon in Bath. Marc Mimram’s pedestrian and cycle bridge, called Between History and Modernity, will link the new Bath Quays development with the city centre.

Heseltine to chair new Tees Valley initiative

The Government has appointed Lord Michael Heseltine to chair a new inward investment programme initiative for the Tees Valley, following the closure of the SSIsteelworks in Redcar. This move will support existing local plans.

Circuit of Wales project common land deal approved

Welsh ministers have approved plans to deregister common land needed for the controversial Circuit of Wales project near Ebbw Vale.

A land swap is part of the deal which now means the £315m scheme should start to climb off the drawing board in earnest. However, questions still remain over the funding for the proposals.

Roger Milne

Interviewees needed for UCL research on building control inspectors

The Bartlett School of Construction and Project Management is currently carrying out a research project on the influence of building control inspectors in the construction industry of England and Wales.

The school is looking for building control officers (both from local authorities and approved inspectors) that are willing to be interviewed about the profession. The study is especially interested in understanding the roles, experiences and strengths of individual inspectors.

All information collected will be treated in strictest confidence and any views or opinions will not be attributed to an individual or organisation. Moreover, participants may withdraw from the research if they choose to at any point and may decline to answer any questions without needing to give a reason.

Interviews will last about one hour and can be conducted via telephone or Skype for respondents located far from London. If interested, kindly contact

Loulwa Achkar (Research Assistant)

loulwa.achkar.14@ucl.ac.uk

07788250354

Bartlett School of Construction and Project Management

2nd Floor 1-19 Torrington Place

London WC1E 7HB

Pressure grows on planning fee reform

The Local Government Association (LGA) has stepped up its pressure on the Government to allow councils to set their own planning fees.

The Association is urging the administration to remove the cap introduced in 2012 when the Chancellor spells out the results of his spending review in the Autumn Statement due on 27 November. There is speculation that the Treasury, keen to see the pace of house building accelerate, is sympathetic.

The LGA said existing nationally-set planning fees had only covered around two-thirds of the actual costs faced by councils in handling planning applications since 2012.

The organisation which represents local authorities across England estimated that the shortfall had already cost councils £450,000 over the past three years and the cost of planning applications was increasing annually by around £150,000.

The LGA also stressed that two thirds of private sector respondents to a survey by the developers’ trade body the British Property Federation had indicated a willingness to pay higher planning fees to help planning departments provide an effective service.

LGA housing spokesman Peter Box said: “It is unacceptable for communities to keep being forced to spend hundreds of millions each year to cover a third of the cost of all planning applications.

Government should recognise the huge pressure this is placing on already stretched planning departments that are crucial to building the homes and roads that local communities need but which have seen 46 per cent reductions in funding over the past five years.”

He added: “The Spending Review should allow local authorities to recover the actual cost of applications and end such a needless waste of taxpayers’ money when developers are willing to pay more.”

Roger Milne

Research identifies out-of-date employment land requirements

Much of the evidence base for employment land requirements in local development plans and used for planning determinations is out of date, research by consultancy Turley has shown.

The research highlighted that half of all local authorities in England have published evidence which predates the introduction of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) in 2012. Of those authorities that have published a local plan, 60 per cent used evidence that predated the framework.

The consultancy also reported that economically dynamic Local Enterprise Partnership areas, including those in the Thames Valley and across large parts of the Northern Powerhouse area, rely on some of the oldest evidence in relation to employment land.

Turley claimed that for one of the fastest evolving business sectors, logistics, the reliance on dated market evidence meant that current and emerging occupier requirements were not being met, often in the areas of highest demand.

The research was based on a survey of 326 local planning authorities across England. The survey was carried out over the period June to July 2015 with data captured from LPA’s last full employment land review or studies which included a forecast of future land requirements. The results represent a snapshot of published evidence as of June/July 2015.

David Smith, head of business space at Turley, said: “It is vital that planning for offices, logistics and other commercial uses is not overlooked in the dash to build more homes.

“For the UK to be a strong, growing economy we need an approach which provides space for workplaces as well as homes and this can only be done effectively if local authorities have up-to-date evidence on which to base their decision-making.”

Roger Milne

Brandon Lewis urges more shared planning services

View the parliamentary transcript

Planning minister Brandon Lewis has urged more councils to share planning services when he answered question in Parliament this week.

During oral questions in the Commons on Monday (9 November) Lewis was asked if he had a solution to the chronic shortage of good planners and the over-reliance on consultants.

Lewis said: “Local authorities should view their planning departments as the heartbeat of economic regeneration in their communities in terms of designing and building for businesses and homes.

“I would encourage local authorities to work together and to share services in the same way that some have shared chief executives and other parts of their management structure.

“They have not done that so much with planning yet, but that would be a good step towards building a strong resource.”

Later the minister pointed out that the Planning Advisory Service provided funding to help councils which moved to shared services.

He told MPs: “Planning authorities that have introduced new ways of delivering planning services have shown that performance can be improved while reducing costs. I hope that more will follow their lead.

We have put support in place through funding the Planning Advisory Service, and we are open to supporting planning authorities to deliver ambitious proposals through devolution deals.”

He added: “It is clear that local authorities that share services can make sure that they protect and improve front-line services, such as planning services, and can see savings of as much as 20 per cent on the work.”

Roger Milne

Steel City urban extensions mooted

View more information on the Sheffield plan

Sheffield City Council this week started preliminary consultations on its new development plan which includes the possibility of providing thousands of new homes in a series of urban extensions.

The Sheffield Plan will cover the whole area of the so-called steel city except for the area in the Peak Park) and will consider development options up to 2034. It will replace the current core strategy which was adopted in 2009.

Under consideration as part of this exercise is a report from prize-winning consultancy Urbed which has recommended that some 100,000 new homes are built in and around the Sheffield conurbation including 30,000 outside existing built-up areas.

The report claimed that around 32,000 homes could be accommodated on existing brownfield land in the area and on brownfield land that was likely to become available over the 20-year plan period. It also suggested that a further 18,000 homes could be created through urban intensification, including the reuse of car parks, the subdivision of large homes and increasing the density of council estates.

The report proposed that the Neepsend and Attercliffe neighbourhoods could be returned to residential use. These areas are currently mainly in low density commercial use.

The report also stressed that consideration should be given to the creation of large urban extensions in Mosborough, Waverley, Bassingthorpe, Oughtibridge and Stocksbridge. These could accommodate some 25,000 homes, the report said.

It also made the case for creating a joint development corporation for Sheffield and Rotherham, with powers to plan development, borrow money and compulsorily purchase land.

Roger Milne

Greater Cambridge increases homes target

View more information about the South Cambridgeshire District Council local plan

Planning authorities in and around Cambridge, one of the fastest-growing areas of England, have increased their local plans’ housing target by 500 homes.

This is the result of extra work commissioned by Cambridge City and South Cambridgeshire District Councils after planning inspectors suspended the examination of their strategies.

The inspectors questioned if more than the 33,000 homes put forward in the two Cambridgeshire council’s draft local plans were needed to meet local needs, and whether the strategy of focusing the majority of homes in new settlements and villages was sound.

Reports published this week (9 November) from independent experts have said that 33,500 homes would be needed by 2031 to meet local needs, just 500 more than originally put forward.

The reports also stated that the extra work commissioned has confirmed the two councils’ strategy to deliver growth through new towns and villages and protecting the green belt from significant releases was the right plan for the Greater Cambridge area.

Since the draft local plans were submitted, promoters of the new town north of Waterbeach and new village at Bourn Airfield have stated the developments could begin earlier. The reports recommend this approach.

To meet requirement for the additional homes needed by 2031, more land than currently earmarked for housing near Cambridge Airport is now proposed for development. The proposals could see 1,200 homes built north of Cherry Hinton and toward Teversham.

The two councils are planning consultation on these latest proposals starting next month (December) before submitting modification to the draft plans for consideration by the inspectors who are expected to resume examination of the strategies around Easter 2016.

View more information about the Cambridge City local plan

Roger Milne

Planning round-up 12 November

View the planning application on the Taunton and Deane Borough Council website, application number 42/14/0069

Decision on Taunton urban extension deferred

Members of Taunton Deane Borough Council’s planning committee have deferred a decision on a major mixed-use urban extension between Comeytrowe in Taunton and Trull after insisting the scheme was deficient in respect of highways, education, and health and access provision.

In a statement the Somerset council explained: “Whilst accepting that the site has been identified in the council’s core strategy, members felt that the master plan proposal was currently not adequate particularly in respect of infrastructure proposals for roads, schooling and health.

They have invited the consortium of developers to work with the council, the three Parish Councils and other key stakeholders on a revised master plan that will ensure the development is deliverable and sustainable.”

The consortium is hoping to build up to 2,000 new homes and provide employment floor space, a primary school, a park, a local centre and public open space.

TCPA report calls for 310,000 new homes a year

Figures just published show that young people across England are struggling more than ever to live independently because of the cost of housing and current shortages of new homes.

According to a new research project commissioned by the Town and Country Planning Association the housing requirement to meet projected household formation until 2031 is actually lower than previously anticipated because younger people are already finding they cannot afford to form independent households.

The research highlighted that the Government was already falling short of its targets to build new homes. Only 54 per cent of the homes required have been built since 2011.

To catch up by 2020 with the number of homes suggested by the projections over 310,000 homes a year over the next five years will be required, the report proposed.

The project ‘How Many Homes’ was funded by the Lady Margaret Patterson Osborn Trust, and Places for People.

The research, which drew on data from the Department for Communities and Local Government and the Office of National Statistics, was undertaken by Neil McDonald, (previously Chief Executive of the National Housing and Planning Advice Unit) and Professor Christine Whitehead from the LSE.

Whitehall cuts accepted by DCLG, Defra and DfT

The Department for Communities and Local Government has agreed to cut 30 per cent from its budget over the next four years after reaching a provisional spending review deal with Chancellor George Osborne.

He signalled that three other Whitehall departments were in the same position: the Treasury, Transport and Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Osborne insisted the savings would be made by a combination of “further efficiencies in departments, closing low-value programmes, and focusing on our priorities as a country.”

View more information on the Graven Hill custom-build project

Cherwell custom-build LDO approved

Cherwell District Council has formally adopted a Local Development Order (LDO) for its Graven Hill custom-build project. Up to 1,900 new homes are set to be built on the former MOD site at Bicester in Oxfordshire.

House builders will have to comply with a master plan and design code but the LDO, the first of its kind at this scale in the UK, will allow “some individuality and variety” according to the council’s lead member for planning, councillor Michael Gibbard.

Green-light for Bradford urban village

Proposals for a new £150m ‘urban village’ between Bradford and Shipley have been approved by Bradford City Council. The scheme, involves up to 1,000 new homes, a school, village centre and shops.

The 30-hectare New Bolton Woods scheme is a joint venture between the local authority and regeneration firm Urbo.

Sport England has objected to the plans because of the loss of two football pitches, triggering government consideration of the proposals.

View more information on the New Bolton Woods development

Prison programme to release urban housing sites

Chancellor George Osborne and Justice Secretary Michael Gove have unveiled proposals to build nine new prisons in a move which ministers say will allow the Government to close old Victorian prisons in city centres and sell the sites for housing.

The administration has claimed this will result in some 3000 new homes being built in urban areas. The Victorian prison site at Reading will be the first to be sold.

Five of the new prisons will be open before the end of this parliament, ministers insisted. The Government will also complete the new prison being built at Wrexham in north east Wales, and expand existing prisons in Stocken and Rye Hill over the next five years.

Pocket parks initiative

Community groups supported by local authorities have been invited to apply for a slice of £1.5m funding, which could see up to 100 under-used sites in deprived urban areas outside London turned into small parks.

The scheme to create so-called ‘Pocket Parks’ echoes a successful New York initiative which has been pioneered in London.

Proposals could include creating wildlife habitats, transforming run-down gardens or simply creating green oases in bustling neighbourhoods.

Pocket parks are defined for this programme as a piece of land of up to 0.4-hectares, although many are around 0.02-hectares, the size of a tennis court. The Department for Communities and Local Government has published a prospectus.

View more information on the Crawley local plan

London round-up

Hounslow Council in west London has given the green light to mixed use scheme in the High Street designed to provide over 134,000 square feet of commercial floor space comprising retail and restaurant use, a new multiplex cinema and 525 new homes, most is a 27-storey residential tower, and a new public square in Hounslow High Street,
An Opportunity Area Planning Framework designed to deliver more than 25,500 new homes and create up to 65,000 jobs at Old Oak and Park Royal in west London has been approved and adopted by the Mayor of London.
A joint venture set up last year to build homes at disused gasholder sites in London and the south east of England has announced plans to redevelop the site of the former Fulham Gasworks in south west London into a mixed-use scheme with up to 1,900 homes.
Southwark Council has given the go-ahead for the redevelopment of Manor Place Depot, Walworth in south London. The approval includes listed building consent for the refurbishment of the existing Grade II listed Pool House and Wash Houses. The scheme will provide 270 new homes and 730 square metres of commercial floor space.

Energy project round-up

More consultation into plans to frack for shale gas in North Yorkshire has started. Third Energy submitted a planning application to frack at a site near the village of Kirby Misperton in Ryedale in May. North Yorkshire County Council said it had requested further information from the company. This has prompted a further round of consultation.
The community group behind a £1m hydro-electric scheme in Abingdon, Oxfordshire has scrapped its plans, citing financial and organisational problems partly prompted by changes in government support for community power projects. Abingdon Hydro had planning permission to put two 10-tonne hydrodynamic screws at the town’s weir at Abbey Meadow to generate electricity for up to 200 homes.
Two more power plant schemes have submitted to the Planning Inspectorate as Nationally Significant Infrastructure projects. One is a proposal to convert two disused slate quarries in Snowdonia into a 99-megawatt pumped storage facility. The other is a refuse-burning power plant at Edmonton, north London which would produce 70-megawatts of electricity and low-carbon heat.
Communities Secretary Greg Clark has dismissed an appeal over a three-turbine onshore wind project proposed for a landfill site at Workington, Cumbria. The scheme had been blocked by the county council. The inspector who held the recovered appeal had also recommended refusal. Clark’s decision letter agreed that there would be adverse visual impacts and harm to the setting of heritage assets. He also concluded that local community concerns over landscape and residential amenity had not been satisfactorily addressed.

Crawley local plan endorsed

Crawley Borough Council has announced it will adopt its new local plan next month (December) after the planning inspector who examined the strategy concluded it was sound subject to modifications which the planning authority has agreed. The land-use strategy will make provision for 5,100 dwellings in total over the plan period 2012-2030.

Kent infrastructure spending gap identified

Long-term growth in Kent could be jeopardised by a gap between housing and infrastructure, according to a new report commissioned by Kent County Council.

The report highlights the significant growth anticipated in Kent over the next 16 years and identifies £6.74bn of infrastructure developments required to support approximately 160,000 new homes and over 135,000 jobs. It also recognises a funding gap of £2bn which, if not addressed, will impede the county’s growth.

View more information on the Kent County Council website

Merseyside devolution makes progress

The five council leaders of Merseyside plus Halton Borough Council in Cheshire have “agreed in principle” a deal with the Government to devolve more powers from Whitehall.

Part of the proposal will include plans for a directly elected mayor for the Liverpool city region.

The “devolution deal” will still need to be agreed by each of the six councils individually, with St Helens believed to be the most sceptical.

View more information on the BBC website

Key WI sites relisted

Four buildings with links to the Women’s Institute have been recognised to mark the organisation’s centenary. The West Sussex home of the WI’s first chairman and its training college in Oxfordshire are to be relisted on the National Heritage List for England. Their listings will now mention the WI.

The listed statuses of The Fox Inn in Charlton, West Sussex, where the first WI meeting was held exactly 100 years ago, and for an early WI building in Northumberland are also being updated.

Go-ahead for Newcastle redevelopment

Newcastle City Council has approved developer McAleer & Rushe’s £100m plans for a mixed-use scheme in the Newgate Street area of the city.

The proposals include a 269-bedrooms hotel, student housing and 2,000 square metres of commercial space for retail, leisure or professional services use.

The 575-bedrooms student housing element of the scheme will be operated by the UK’s leading provider of purpose built student accommodation, Unite Students.

View more information on the Staffordshire County Council website

Stafford link road approved

A major road scheme to ease traffic congestion in the centre of Stafford and support new homes planned for the western side of the town has been approved by Staffordshire County Council.

The Stafford Western Access Route will connect the A518 Newport Road with the A34 Foregate Street.

The project is backed by the Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire Enterprise Partnership, which secured funding through the Government’s Growth Deal.

Woking development makes waves

Woking Borough Council has voted to let New Vision Homes submit a planning application for 984 homes in, the Surrey town as part of a project which will involve the demolition of 600 properties on the existing Sheerwater Estate.

The plans involve at least 460 new affordable homes, a health centre and leisure and retail facilities. The demolition plans are being fiercely contested by some residents.

View more information on the Sheerwater regeneration

Top tree named

An ancient pear tree due to be chopped down to make way for the HS2 high-speed rail line has been voted the best tree in England following a poll organised by the Woodland Trust. The Cubbington pear tree is believed to have been growing near the Warwickshire village for more than 250 years.

Legal round-up

A High Court judge has sentenced a man who refused to demolish a house he built behind straw bales in the Surrey Green Belt to three months in prison, suspended for six months.
A row over plans by CG International for more than 500 new homes in an area of outstanding natural beauty in Kent has taken a new turn now the Campaign for Rural England has announced a judicial review challenge over the approval given by Dover District for a 130-bedroom hotel, 521 homes and 90 retirement homes.
A West Midlands council has won a Court of Appeal land and planning battle over a site earmarked for a replacement mosque in Dudley.
The Court of Appeal has rejected a challenge to Selby District Council’s adoption of its Core Strategy Local Plan, in a key ruling on the duty to cooperate.
Two men have been ordered to pay more than £50,000 after running an unauthorised airport car park near Gatwick which had not been given planning permission by Mid Sussex District Council.

Starter homes will be part of the s106 mix insists minister

Planning minister Brandon Lewis has told Parliament that it will be up local councils to negotiate the mix of starter and affordable homes in s106 agreements.

But the minister made it clear that the Government would expect all reasonably sized schemes to include a proportion of starter homes.

The minister was quizzed by MPs on the Commons Communities and Local Government Committee about government policy on starter homes, which forms a key part of the administration’s new Housing and Planning bill, on Monday evening (9 November).

Lewis told the committee that the government is “very clear that an affordable home does not need to be limited to an affordable home for rent”.

But the minister added that the mix of tenures agreed in a section 106 deal would remain subject to negotiation between developers and planning departments. “A continuation of the current situation” he insisted.

Neighbourhood plans boost housing strategies

New neighbourhood planning powers are boosting plans for house building by more than 10 per cent, Housing and Planning Minister Brandon Lewis has claimed.

This is based on data gathered by the Department for Communities and Local Government during May and June 2015 regarding areas with neighbourhood plans that have allocated housing sites and have been in force for over six months.

For these areas housing allocations in the neighbourhood plans were assessed against housing allocations in the corresponding Local Plan.

Roger Milne

November 5, 2015

Housing and Planning bill survives Parliamentary scrutiny during second reading