Housing growth is a very contentious and difficult area for local communities, often due to concerns of over-development, harm to the setting of designated heritage assets, harm to protected or valued landscapes and traffic impacts.

Our clients generally are looking for the right quantum of housing growth for their communities in the right location that does not involve loss of Green Belt land, harm to a National Park or Area of Outstanding National Beauty (AONB) and the right mix of affordable housing to meet local needs.

Assistance with the Local Plan process

Many of our clients start their journey to shape their communities’ housing needs through participation in the local plan process. At this stage we work with our clients while there is scope to influence the local plan-making process to stop damaging housing allocations long before planning applications come forward. This can lead to an allocation being found unsound or a plan withdrawn.

Where this fails, the adoption of a local plan can be challenged through the Planning Court as evidenced by our work and the wider area of challenges to local plan decisions under section 113 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004.

Issues with Five-year housing land supply

Where your Local Planning Authority (LPA) lacks a five-year housing land supply (5YHLS) speculative developers may acquire the land or an option in the land and then apply to the LPA for planning consent for housing growth on the basis that the “tilted balance” applies to create a presumption in favour of development. We have a strong track record in fighting speculative planning applications with our clients, both before LPAs as objectors or on appeal to the Planning Inspectorate where consent is refused and the developer appeals.

Our work involves working both with local communities where there is a local plan and the site is either not allocated or outside the settlement boundary, and also those cases where the site is allocated in the local plan by raising material considerations which warrant refusal, such as heritage harm, landscape harm, wildlife, flooding impact, traffic etc.

Inappropriate housing

We also have experience with housing proposals, either via planning applications or permitted development applications, which are contrary to the LPA’s planning policies and we have been successful either via objections or judicial review in having the proposals rejected by committee or quashed by the Court.