No-win, no-fee lawyers ruining countryside

Yesterday's Daily Mail had a real go at Gladman Developments, the speculative developer bidding to build 120 homes at Little Heath. The newspaper said:

No-win, no-fee lawyers ruining our countryside: They bankroll farmers seeking permission to build on their fields

• Speculators are trying to exploit a loophole to build houses on open fields
• Gladman Developments offers farmers chance to increase value of land
• 'Predatory' agent is pursuing 102 applications for housing developments
• Government wants to build 200,000 homes each year to meet demand
• Country Life said villages have been 'stripped of their natural defences'

By Ben Spencer and Rosie Taylor for the Daily Mail

In a damning indictment of the Government's relaxed planning laws, one successful land agent is now so confident it can bulldoze past local objections that it does not charge farmers an upfront fee for its services.

A Daily Mail investigation has revealed that Gladman Developments, a 'strategic land promoter', offers them the chance to increase the value of their land by a multiple of 50 or 60 by transforming agricultural land into development sites.

Gladman – one of the most successful of these 'predatory developers' – is pursuing 102 planning applications for huge housing developments all over England, most of them on greenfield land on the edge of rural towns and villages.

The revelation comes days after two of the most respected rural institutions – the National Trust and Country Life magazine – issued warnings that some of Britain's most picturesque countryside is being desecrated as a result of the Government's reforms.

They said rural communities are alarmed at the ease with which businesses are able to win planning permission for housing in the face of local opposition.

Country Life said in an article last week that villages have been 'stripped of their natural defences' by the Government's reforms, which have opened the floodgates to greenfield planning applications.

Its editor-at-large, Clive Aslet, wrote that while farmland was once protected, the balance had changed with the introduction of the new guidelines.

Councils must now show they have enough land to meet housing targets for the next five years – or lose key powers to ward off planning applications.

"Those who can't are naked in the face of predatory developers", Mr Aslet wrote. "Communities that don't have local plans in place are similarly meat for the wolves."

The Government's policies were also denounced by Sir Simon Jenkins, the outgoing chairman of the National Trust, in an article for the Daily Mail.

He wrote: "Rolling farmland is replaced by warehouses, bleak housing estates, wind turbines and advertising hoardings in fields."

The Government is desperate to build more than 200,000 homes each year to meet booming demand.

Under its National Planning Policy Framework, pushed into law two years ago, councils which have not earmarked suitable land to meet housing demand over the next five years must adopt a 'presumption' in favour of planning permission.

Gladman Developments, which has a turnover of £200million a year, targets councils that cannot demonstrate a five-year housing supply.

It offers to pay all the costs of obtaining planning permission – including the fees for lawyers and experts in the event of any appeal – which can exceed £300,000.

If the attempt to win permission is unsuccessful, the farmer does not have to pay anything. The firm recently took out adverts in the farming press calling for sites of up to 50 acres on the edge of a towns or villages. Its adverts boast: 'We aim to never lose and have won 90 per cent of our housing planning applications.

'You pay nothing, win or lose. We only get our percentage after you have sold your land to the highest bidding house builder.'

The firm has an astonishing success rate, having secured planning permission for rural sites in 41 out of its last 43 cases, despite substantial local opposition.

Its latest projects include a site for 112 homes in the idyllic Slad Valley in Gloucestershire, immortalised in Laurie Lee's memoir Cider with Rosie; an estate of 107 homes within view of the summit of the Peak District's Kinder Scout; and a 970-house project in Lincolnshire which would expand the town of Louth by 12 per cent.

Among its other projects are plans for 1,500 homes near Stratford-upon-Avon, and 70 homes in Witney, Oxfordshire, in David Cameron's constituency.

David Gladman, director of Gladman Developments, insisted his company focused on 'sensible, sustainable locations'.

He said: "We are professional at what we do, and proud to help deliver homes and associated prosperity to these towns and villages. Everyone needs reminding that we all live in a home which was built on what was once a green field."

Planning Minister Brandon Lewis said: "There remains strong protection of the countryside and Green Belt. The best way for councils to send speculative vultures packing is to have an up to date local plan."

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