The planning inspector considering Canterbury City Council’s draft local plan has recommended postponing the second stage of its examination while the Kent planning authority investigates meeting a slightly higher housing need.
The council had proposed making provision for 780 new homes each year over the lifetime of the plan. The inspector has concluded that the yearly figure should be 800.
The inspector has told the council that in other respects the plan passes the “soundness” test and the planning authority has satisfied the duty on cooperation with neighbouring authorities.
The inspector has asked the council to provide more information on the viability of infrastructure linked to the main housing allocations and has suggested it should look again at sites that were not allocated to see if they can be brought forward for early delivery.
He has highlighted three sites: land south of the John Wilson Business Park in Chestfield, land south of the A28 in Hersden and land south of Thanington, for which a planning application described as ‘Thanington Park’ has already been submitted.
The inspector noted that the council currently did not have a proven five year housing supply, which, if not remedied, would mean the plan would be unsound.
Meanwhile members of Warwick District Council have voted to request a suspension of the district’s local plan examination. This move followed an unsuccessful bid to persuade Communities Secretary Greg Clark to intervene after the inspector examining the strategy rejected it on the grounds it needed significant changes before it could progress.
The council has now proposed a timetable of further work which it insists means the examination could resume in September next year.
View more information on Canterbury City Council’s draft local plan
View more information on Warwick District Council’s local plan
Roger Milne
Welsh strategic planning panel consultation
The Welsh administration has begun consulting on the composition of its proposed strategic planning panels (SDPs) as well as the financial issues affecting them.
These new bodies will be responsible for a new breed of strategic development plans which will deal with issues including housing, employment, transport, infrastructure, minerals and waste which cut across a number of local planning authorities (LPAs).
Housing provision for individual local development plans will be set at this level. Panels will be a plan-making body and will not make planning decisions. They will not require agreement from constituent local planning authorities.
Panels will be formed of both LPA members and nominated members from social, economic and environmental groups. Only the LPA members will have voting rights. Under current plans some 40 per cent of the panel membership would be female.
Devon homes and marina plan appeal dismissed
An appeal by developer LTPH Properties over a major development involving 300 new dwellings, a 250-berth marina and 80 units of holiday accommodation at Torridge, Devon has been dismissed.
The site comprised a substantial area of undeveloped land between two settlements. The area was identified in an adopted plan as a local gap and this, concluded the inspector, meant it should be considered as a “valued landscape” under paragraph 109 of the NPPF.
The inspector concluded that the marina was an acceptable use but was not viable without the associated development which would cause unacceptable harm to the area and local heritage assets.
London round-up
- Mayor Boris Johnson has called in GRID Architects’ plans for a mixed use scheme in Putney town centre after members of Wandsworth Council refused it against the advice of planning officers. The south west London scheme involves 97 flats, ground floor shops or restaurants and a gym.
- Lambeth Council’s local plan has been found “sound” on the basis of the former London Plan housing provision figures of 1,195 dwellings per annum. The inspector who examined the plan said the south London planning authority should undertake a review of its plan at the earliest opportunity to incorporate the new London Plan housing requirement figure of 1,559 dwellings per annum. The Council said that it aimed to produce a revised local plan by June 2016.
- The boroughs who prepared the West London Waste Plan have now all formally adopted the strategy for waste management up to 2031.The local authorities involved are Brent, Ealing, Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow and Richmond upon Thames. The Old Oak Common and Park Royal Development Corporation has also agreed the strategy.
- A detailed application to build nearly 250 homes on a former RAF site in west London has been submitted to the London Borough of Hillingdon.
Legal round-up
- Waverley Borough Council’s planning decision to allow Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s former Surrey home Undershaw to become a school for children with disabilities will be reviewed by a judge.
- Market traders have failed in a High Court challenge to the Communities Secretary’s decision to confirm a compulsory purchase order made by Hammersmith & Fulham Council to facilitate the regeneration of Shepherds Bush market.
- Daventry District Council has announced it is going to court over two planning appeal decisions. It is contesting how an appeal inspector dealt with adopted Local Plan policies and how a separate inspector dealt with a five-year supply issue and whether the local planning authority was unreasonable to request affordable housing for a development of five dwellings.
- West Berkshire Council is mounting a legal challenge over a planning Inspector’s decision to allow an appeal over a development of up to 90 houses at Firlands Farm, Burghfield Common.
- Ryedale District Council is contesting a bill for costs of more than £150,000 after losing a legal action over plans for a supermarket at Malton.
- A village action group is looking to crowd fund legal representation for an inquiry into their application to register a piece of land known as Mankley Field located between two Gloucestershire villages near Stroud as a village green. The site, between the villages of Leonard Stanley and King’s Stanley, has outline permission for a development of 150 dwellings.
Harlow housing estate redevelopment
Plans to redevelop three former housing estates and build 343 new homes in Harlow, Essex have been given the go ahead by the Essex District Council.
House builder Countryside and Home Group have been given approval for the £67m scheme that also includes a new community centre.
The development will see a mix of detached, semi-detached, terraced houses and flats built. Around 55 per cent of the homes will be managed by Home Group, providing either ‘affordable’ rental homes or shared ownership properties.
The new development will replace the outdated homes on The Briars, Copshall Close and Aylets Field estates.
Peak Park’s forest sales
A dozen areas of woodland in the Peak District National Park are to be sold off, with the first six already on the market.
Peak District National Park Authority said it was “reducing liabilities” at a time of budget cuts.
It said the areas were small and would be sold with restrictions on their use and a similar number would be sold later in the year.
The authority said government cut-backs in grant-aid meant it had lost 36.5 per cent of income over the past five years.
Retail therapy for steel city
Sheffield City Council announced it has submitted an outline planning application for the city centre’s so-called Sheffield Retail Quarter.
The proposals, which have a price tag of £480m, will see the area around Barkers Pool, Pinstone Street and Moorhead transformed with new shops, offices, restaurants and flats. The scheme could create around 2500 jobs and bring in approximately an additional £300m a year to the city centre.
Historical buildings such as Leah’s Yard and The Citadel (Salvation Army building) will be preserved, as well as facades along Pinstone Street and of the old sunday school. The council is now purchasing land for the scheme and short-listing development partners.
Tyneside shipyard project
The former Swan Hunter shipyard on Tyneside is to get £8m to make progress with redevelopment of the site.
North Tyneside Council plans to turn the 13 hectare site into a centre for the renewable energy, advanced engineering and offshore sectors.
The money, secured by the North East Local Enterprise Partnership, will be used to fill a redundant wet berth at the old shipyard, creating more space for potential businesses.
Big Apple architects for Preston bus station makeover
A New York firm of architects has been chosen by Lancashire Council to design the £13m revamp of Preston’s bus station. The “brutalist” landmark building was grade 11 listed in 2013 after it was threatened with demolition. John Puttick Associates was picked as the winning bid from an anonymous shortlist of five entries.
Roger Milne
Shale gas planning applications will be fast-tracked through a new dedicated planning process under measures just announced which could involve intervention by Communities Secretary Greg Clark where councils repeatedly fail to determine oil and gas applications within the statutory timeframe.
Energy Secretary Amber Rudd and Greg Clark insisted this week that communities would have a strong say over shale exploration, but also said industry would benefit from a swift process for developing suitable new sites.
Under the new regime, announced on 13 August, the Communities Secretary will “actively” consider calling in on a case-by-case basis shale planning applications and consider recovering shale gas development appeals.
The new arrangements include identifying councils that repeatedly fail to determine oil and gas applications within the 16 week statutory timeframe, with subsequent applications potentially decided by the Communities Secretary.
Clark will also ensure planning call-ins and appeals involving shale applications are prioritised by the Planning Inspectorate.
Ministers have also committed to taking forward work on revising permitted development rights for drilling boreholes for groundwater monitoring.
The administration has reiterated its belief that communities hosting shale gas developments should share in the financial returns they generate and will be presenting proposals later in the year on the design of a new sovereign wealth fund.
Rudd said: “To ensure we get this industry up and running we can’t have a planning system that sees applications dragged out for months, or even years, on end.”
Clark said: “People’s safety and the environment will remain paramount and communities will always be involved in planning applications but no one benefits from uncertainty caused by delays in planning decisions. By fast tracking any appropriate applications these changes will tackle potential hold ups in the system.”
Roger Milne
Ministers have approved a development consent order for the construction of a major new offshore wind farm off the UK north-east coast.
If built, the Dogger Bank Teesside A and B Offshore wind project will involve up to 400 wind turbines in total, across two offshore wind generating stations, each with an installed capacity of up to 1.2 gigawatts.
The onshore elements of the development will be located in Redcar and Cleveland. The project could support hundreds of jobs in the North East region and has the potential to generate enough green electricity to power up to 1.8 million homes.
Energy and Climate Change Minister Lord Bourne said: “As we build the Northern Powerhouse, we want local communities to reap the benefits of investment and green jobs from low carbon developments like this Dogger Bank Offshore wind project.”
The project is the brainchild of Forewind, a consortium comprising four European energy companies, one of which – SSE – is British, the others involved, RWE, Statkraft and Statoil, are German and Norwegian. The arrays would be located between 125 kilometres and 290 kilometres off the North East coast.
As well as the turbines the development would comprise up to 8 offshore collector platforms, up to four accommodation or helicopter platforms, up to 10 metrological stations, up to two convertor stations and up to two sets of export cables to connect the arrays to a coastal landing point between Redcar and Marske-by-the-Sea.
Find out more information about the project on the Forewind website
Roger Milne
Two more local plans are experiencing serious turbulence. Arun District Council’s strategy is facing a 12-18-month suspension, while West Oxfordshire District Council’s draft local plan is facing uncertainty because the planning authority has distanced itself from the strategic housing market assessment (SHMA), which other Oxfordshire councils are relying on.
The planning authority has also been criticised by the inspector examining its development plan for the absence of any provision of travellers’ sites.
Examination of Arun DC’s local plan now faces a lengthy suspension while the West Sussex planning authority carries out further work to ensure the strategy can meet a higher housing needs figure. The council accepts that the plan’s original figure of 580 new dwellings per annum is no longer credible and the objectively assessed need is significantly higher, in the range 641-758 dwellings per annum.
In the case of the Oxfordshire district council the public examination of its draft local plan is due to start in October.
But the inspector examining the strategy has raised major concerns over the housing figures in the strategy, the absence of any provision for travellers and whether the duty to cooperate has been met.
The inspector is particularly worried that the council has what appear to be fundamental objections to the county SHMA as well as the Oxfordshire Strategic Economic Plan.
View more information about Arun District Council’s local plan
View more information about West Oxfordshire District Council’s local plan
Roger Milne
Tamworth Borough Council’s Planning Committee has approved the Staffordshire local authority’s outline planning application for up to 1,100 new homes on the former Tamworth golf course site.
The go-ahead also involved proposals for a new primary school, extension to Hodge Lane Local Nature Reserve and community woodland.
The land will now be sold to a developer who will have to enter into a section 106 agreement. On completion of the agreement, planning permission will be issued. The deadline for bids is next month (September).
The s106 agreement for the development of the former golf course site includes 20 per cent affordable homes on the site, £4.2m for the improvement of secondary and sixth form education, £1m towards the provision of new indoor sports facilities within the borough, expenditure totalling £3m for artificial sports pitches, new community woodland and the creation and maintenance of public open space, including a natural play area.
Also there is to be provision of a new half-hourly bus service between the development and Tamworth town centre. The agreement also requires highway improvements.
A total of 25 hectares of the site will be developed as new public open space. The two main features are the seven hectare extension to the Hodge Lane Local Nature Reserve and the creation of new community woodland featuring oak trees with picnic areas, accessible trails, viewpoints and a community orchard.
Roger Milne
Plans for a massive new rail freight terminal at Bellshill in North Lanarkshire have been approved in principle by Scottish ministers against the recommendation of the reporter [Scottish planning inspectors are called reporters] from the Directorate for Planning and Environmental Appeals who dealt with the scheme’s appeal.
The proposals for an “inland port” providing some 200,000 square metres of distribution, service and logistics facilities co-located next to four new 775-metre Euro Standard railway sidings were refused by the local planning authority.
PD Stirling, which operates the existing Mossend Railhead in Bellshill, plans to expand the existing facilities by creating what is called the Mossend International Railfreight Park.
A government spokesman said: “Having carefully considered the reporter’s report and the issues raised in objections, Scottish ministers have decided to grant planning permission in principle for the expansion of the Mossend Railhead.
“National Planning Framework 3 (NPF3) and Scottish Planning Policy support modal shift of freight transport from road to rail.
“Mossend, along with Coatbridge and Grangemouth, is identified as an important interchange in the central belt.
“Ministers welcome the potential economic benefits of the proposal as well as the opportunity to enhance transport and green infrastructure in the local area.”
The reporter had recommended that the project should be refused because of green belt concerns and because the proposals were contrary to the local development plan.
Roger Milne
L&G invests in Leeds mixed-use development
Investment company and insurer Legal & General has acquired a 50 per cent stake in Thorpe Park Leeds, an 80 hectare mixed-use business development site in East Leeds. The company has entered into a joint venture (JV) with Scarborough Group International (Scarborough Group).
This partnership will deliver phase two of Thorpe Park Leeds which has consent for a 1.35 million square feet mixed-use scheme. Thorpe Park Leeds is set to create a further 13,000 local jobs while potentially unlocking the construction of 7,000 new homes in the East Leeds area through the construction of the first section of the East Leeds Orbital Road, a key piece of road infrastructure.
The deal represents the first project to be delivered since the start of L&G’s Regeneration Investment Organisation (RIO) partnership launched at 10 Downing Street in January.
Earlier this year Scarborough Group received planning consent for the first 60,000 square feet of offices and consent for 300 new homes on the site.
Success on appeal for major Cornish housing scheme
Developer Jackamax Ltd has won its appeal over an urban extension providing 340 new homes on land at Trenethick to the north east of Helston, Cornwall which the unitary authority had failed to determine within the statutory period.
Costs were awarded against the planning authority which told the inquiry it objected to the outline proposal on sustainability and transport grounds.
The inspector who held the inquiry concluded that the scheme would bring both economic and social benefits. His letter argued “The environmental dimension of sustainability is more finely balanced, clearly there would be the loss of what is presently open land. But the proposal would not appear as an incongruous appendage to Helston and there is no reason why it should not be successfully designed and landscaped.”
The emerging local plan process had been suspended pending further work on housing provision. The appeal site was one of three potential urban extensions under consideration.
London round-up
- Westminster Council has announced plans to issue an Article 4 direction to remove permitted development (PD) rights for basement development works. The central London planning authority’s proposal is now open for public consultation.
- East London Tower Hamlets Council has granted planning permission for the first residential tower at the Wood Wharf redevelopment, now known as New Phase. The 57- storey building is located on the waterfront on the south dock. The proposal contains plans for 468 new homes as well as 17,777 square metres of business space, and 2,763 square metres of retail and leisure floor space.
- Hackney Mayor Jules Pipe has stepped up his campaign against the now amended proposals for the Bishopsgate Goodsyard development. He warned the proposals still threaten the unique character of Shoreditch and its nearby conservation areas and listed buildings, does little to address the east London borough’s housing needs and could be hugely detrimental to Tech City, leading to the loss of local tech and design jobs.
Energy project developments
- Mining company Miller Argent’s proposals for a new 478 hectare opencast mine in the Rhymney Valley have been rejected by Caerphilly County Borough.
- Island Gas Limited has submitted an application seeking planning permission to install monitoring boreholes on land off Springs Road, to the north-east of Misson in Bassetlaw, Nottinghamshire. In May a scoping request was submitted by Island Gas Limited to Nottinghamshire County Council for exploratory shale gas drilling, in relation to the same site.
- Plans for a hydroelectric power scheme at a stately home in Derbyshire have been approved by the Peak District National Park. Two generators will be installed next to weirs on the River Derwent within the Chatsworth House estate.
- Proposals by green developer Epsilon for a solar farm in Burton-on-the-Wolds, Leicestershire have been unveiled a week after a larger 12 megawatt project for the same location had been rejected on appeal. The company has now submitted a screening opinion to Charnwood Borough Council for a 5 gigawatt solar farm on the same piece of land.
- Energy company Europa Oil & Gas has won a long-running battle to carry out exploratory oil drilling in the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in Surrey. A planning inspector has allowed the company’s appeal over refusal of planning permission by Surrey County Council for the drilling at Holmwood near Leith Hill.
Land-use statistics
New English land use change statistics for 2013/14 covering brownfield/greenfield; green belt, flood risk and density have just been published which indicate that some 60 per cent of new homes over that period were built on previously developed land.
The figures also showed that one in five of the homes built on previously undeveloped land had a previous use of residential gardens (eight per cent of total new homes).
The statistics highlighted that three per cent of new homes were in green belt and that eight per cent of land changing to residential use was in green belt. Of new homes built in green belt, 62 per cent were on previously developed land.
Average density of new residential developments was 32 homes per hectare. On previously developed land average density was 37 addresses per hectare while on non-previously developed land average density was 26 addresses per hectare. Within green belt, average density of new development was 18 addresses per hectare.
Areas with highest density were Tower Hamlets, Lancaster, Kensington and Chelsea, City of London, Westminster, Hammersmith and Fulham and Lincoln.
Housing figures
The number of social rented homes sold under the Right to buy initiative now outstrips the number built, new analysis has suggested.
Government figures analysed by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that more social housing tenants exercised their Right to Buy in 2013/14 than the number of new social rented homes built in England and Wales.
In 2013/14, there were 11,514 Right to Buy sales and 10,920 units of additional social rented homes, the Department for Communities and Local Government figures show. In 2012/13, there were 6,114 Right to Buy sales and 17,620 additional social rented homes. In addition to social rented housing, 19,740 ‘affordable rent’ homes were built in 2013/14.
The last time there were more Right to Buy sales than new social rented homes built was in 2005/06 when there were 28,519 sales and 23,630 new social homes.
The number of social homes built has decreased because government programmes now only fund affordable rent homes, which are let at up to 80% market rent.
Analysis by the ONS also shows there is a shortfall in the total number of social properties compared to the number of applicants on housing waiting lists in every English local authority apart from three.
Starter Home funding announced
Communities Secretary Greg Clark has launched a £26m fund for house builders to demonstrate the range of high quality homes for first-time buyers that will be available as part of the administration’s Starter Home initiative.
The fund will support architects, developers, councils, housing associations and small builders to build properties that will increase the quality of design as the government gears up its pledge to build 200,000 starter homes by 2020.
It will be used to acquire brownfield sites to provide land for starter homes. Money from the sales of these sites will go back to the government.
As well the government has made available up to £10m for local authorities to prepare more brownfield land for development of starter homes.
Hull city centre plans goes on display
A new exhibition at Hull’s Ferens Art Gallery shows what the city centre is planned to look like by the year 2020.
The city is spending £25m on the first phase of the scheme ahead of hosting the year-long UK City of Culture festival in 2017.
Parts of the city centre will be pedestrianised, with new paving and fountains installed. Under the proposals for 2017, landmarks will be illuminated with special LED lights to create what is described as “sculptures in the sky”.
Films, videos and displays in the gallery enable the public to ‘walk through’ the proposals for a new cruise terminal and the redevelopment of the Fruit Market, move into city centre streets where ambitious public realm projects that will transform public spaces and down into the Old Town where schemes will re-establish the area as an historical centre.
Go-ahead for Brummie skyscraper
Doone Silver Architects has won permission to demolish John Madin’s NatWest tower in Birmingham and replace it with what is to become the city’s tallest building
Birmingham City Council has approved the new 26 storey (102.5m) office-block at 103 Colmore Row for Sterling Property Ventures and Rockspring Property Investment Managers.
The decision finally spells the end for Madin’s 1975 city centre block which has been empty for more than a decade.
The 102.5 metre high steel, aluminium and glazed tower will house 18,500 square metres of offices and nearly 1,500 square metres of leisure space and will feature a terrace on the 18th level.
Liverpool Lime Street regeneration
Proposals for a £35m revamp of part Liverpool city centre have been approved by the city council. The scheme will focus on the Lime Street area and includes proposals for a new hotel, shops, restaurants and student accommodation.
However there has been concern that the Futurist Cinema building, one of the country’s oldest purpose-built cinemas, will be demolished to make way for the project.
Redditch offices to flats conversion
A former council office block that stood empty for more than four years in Redditch is to be turned into flats. Threadneedle House, in Walter Stranz Square, has been sold by Redditch Borough Council to developers UVEE.
UVEE said it would turn the 1980s building, which includes old council offices and a former bank, into 37 flats. A post office trading from the block will be unaffected by the sale and development plans.
Crawley town centre revamp
Major improvement plans for Crawley’s Queens Square have been approved. The borough council and West Sussex County Council are investing £3m in revitalising the area, with work starting early next year and expected to be completed by autumn 2016.
Residents were asked to pick their favourite out of three possible designs for the development last year. They chose one based on curved landscaping and planters, with a large space for events and improved lighting. The bandstand will also be refurbished and moved to the Memorial Gardens.
Legal round-up
- Developer Larkfield Homes has lost its Appeal Court challenge over permission for a relief road in Grantham approved by South Kesteven District Council in 2013 alongside a major residential development planned by Buckminster Estate.
- Lancashire County Council is facing a potential judicial review challenge to its decision to grant planning permission for seismic monitoring at a shale gas exploration site where fracking is on the cards.
- A High Court judge has ruled that a planning inspector misinterpreted green belt planning policy in his refusal of an appeal against Solihull Council’s decision to block proposals for the construction of an office building in the countryside near Coventry. The refusal has now been quashed.
Yorkshire studio project
A new film and television studio facility is to be developed on a former RAF base in North Yorkshire by media company Screen Yorkshire.
Proposals for the change of use of a 9,290 square metre air hangar at Church Fenton were unanimously approved by Selby District Council.
Screen Yorkshire invests in television, film, computer game and digital content projects across the region.
The airbase was established in the 1930s and is around half a mile from Church Fenton village 26 kilometres from Leeds and 17 miles from York.
Welsh secondary planning legislation
Consultation on further Welsh secondary legislation for development management has just started. The measures involve statutory consultees, design and access statements (DAS) and houses in multiple occupation (HMOs).
Somerset flooding report
Dredging on the Somerset Levels would have significantly reduced the number of houses submerged underwater in the 2013-14 floods, a report by the Environment Agency has concluded.
Shingle beach estate for sale
A deserted shingle beach next to a nuclear power station on England’s South Coast has been put up for sale at £1.5m.
The 200 hectare Dungeness Estate, in Kent, has been described as “Britain’s only desert” by the Met Office. The headland, which juts out into the English Channel, is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and has 29 homes built from railway carriages on it.
The Estate, which includes the cottage where film director Derek Jarman lived, has been part of a family trust since 1964.
Roger Milne
Last week we reported that we’d been deluged by offers from professional applicants to help test the new version of the Planning Portal.
I’m happy to say we’ve had an equal level of support from local planning authorities to help test the system and make sure we have a seamless handover from old to new.
Our own testing is due to start this week, with LPAs due to start their two-week testing window from the week commencing 17th August.
Just like our request to professional applicants, we were heavily oversubscribed with offers of help from LPAs, with over 60 applying for 30 slots.
We have now filled these slots, which are representative of the LPA community in England covering large, small, urban and rural LPAs with the full range of ICT back-end planning solutions.
We’ll start giving you an insight into the new look and feel and features of the new Portal this week.
Two Berkshire councils have won a landmark High Court challenge over government policy brought in last November which set a threshold on the size of developments beneath which planning authorities should not seek affordable housing contributions through section 106 agreements.
That has now been quashed as has the vacant building credit policy. Under those provisions affordable housing requirements were reduced according to the extent to which a housing proposal involved the re-use or redevelopment of vacant buildings.
As a result of last week’s ruling by Mr Justice Holgate some 12 paragraphs have been removed from the National Planning Policy Guidance.
Last November, planning minister Brandon Lewis announced the new policy on affordable housing provision in a ministerial statement which set a threshold of developments of 10 homes or fewer. In designated rural areas, the threshold was set at five homes or fewer.
West Berkshire Council and Reading Borough Council successfully joined forces to challenge the proposal.
The judge agreed with the councils that the consultation process over the policy had been unfair and unlawful. He argued that there was a failure to take into account “obviously material” considerations when promulgating the policy, including the full implications for the supply of affordable housing land.
Tony Page, Reading’s lead councillor for planning, said: “This judgment is excellent news not just for Reading and West Berkshire councils but for all the people looking for affordable places to live.
“There is an acute and increasing need for affordable homes in Reading, which is demonstrated by the fact there are around 10,000 people on our housing waiting list, and the changes to the planning system would have made matters worse.”
Alan Law, West Berkshire’s executive member for planning, said: “The decision to legally challenge the government on this issue was not taken lightly.
“The judgment… confirms that the council were fully justified in challenging this policy change in order to deliver much needed affordable housing and safeguard funding for critical infrastructure such as education.”
Planning barrister Jenny Wigley of No. 5 Chambers commented: “The practical implications are of immediate effect to developers’ negotiations. Following the judgment, the government has announced that the relevant paragraphs of the NPPG will be removed and this is now reflected on the NPPG website.
“Accordingly, with immediate effect, developers will be unable to rely on those paragraphs in negotiations as to affordable housing and tariff style infrastructure contributions. The vacant building credit will also no longer be applicable.”
A Department for Communities and Local Government spokesman said: “We are disappointed by the outcome of the judgement and will be seeking permission to appeal against the judge’s decision. This will have a disproportionate impact on smaller builders who are important in providing homes for local communities.”
View more information on the Planning Practice Guidance website
Roger Milne
Planning Portal Blog 