Change to planning rules coming in

AudlemOnline has received the following message from Andrew Needham from the CPRE (Campaign for Preservation of Rural England) following our report on Cheshire East's meetings behind closed doors yesterday. He says:

"AudlemOnline says:- 'Cheshire East was confident its emerging local plan would satisfy government demands to supply enough land to build 7,500 homes in the next five years.

'But recent appeal rulings not only question the council's claim that it can deliver on 7,500, but also insists at least 9,000 homes must be built to make up the backlog on homes not built in the past four years, a figure Cheshire East has little hope of achieving.'

In fact, says Andrew, its worse than that: "The 7500/9000 homes have to be 'deliverable'. There are many cases where developers have planning permission but for various reasons are not proceeding. In some cases they say the condition for 30% affordables is not viable. In some cases it is land banking."

Andrew then sent us a press clipping from The Times of 9th November. It says that developers must build homes within three years or they will lose planning permission, the Government has warned.

The Times article says the new move is designed to stop developers "hoarding" plots of land for several years as they wait for house prices to build new homes. This came up at the recent public meeting in Audlem when MP Stephen O'Brien said developers were boosting their share price by building up land banks.

The initiative comes from the controversial Planning Minister, Nick Boles, who has been heavily criticised by many for what is happening with large housing developments being proposed on greenfield sites across rural England.

This follows the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, pledging in September that developers would have their land seized if they failed to use it, the Times reports.

The Planning Minister, who we suspect has been coming under increasing pressure from many uncomfortable MPS in rural constituencies, said he had scrapped a temporary measure introduced by the previous government which allowed developers to roll forward their planning permissions during the financial crisis.

The result is developers will now have a limit of three years to start building on land before they lose their planning permission.

AudlemOnline suspects the word 'start' might open this ruling up to widespread abuse. Why not 'complete' which would avoid any possible confusion? After all, much of the current issue and debate has arisen because speculative developers can exploit loopholes in the current planning law.

It is also questionable whether this change will make much difference to the current developments subject to appeals where councils have not completed an acceptable 5-year housing supply except that building work may start sooner if the developer wins the appeal.

This article is from our news archive. As a result pictures or videos originally associated with it may have been removed and some of the content may no longer be accurate or relevant.