Quite the worst and most egregious exclude for not meeting need in recent years and illustrating better than anywhere else why the system has to change re GB and strategic planning. They delayed for two years, after reviewing GB, and after the new NPPF came out without anu of the changes they expected there new excuse is the report re meeting the strategic need is out of date going back to 2018. Nimbyism never gets out of date. inevitably they will be brought to heel, and will cry like spoilt babies. Full council ..read more

The inspectors have found the plan 1,600 houses short The arguments at the EIP raged around deliverability with opponents claiming, there was no evidence on deliverability on many key sites. Before the submitted draft of the local plan it had not included many urban sites such as Wirral Waters on deliverability grounds. At the examination they claimed something would turn up, despite some sites requiring up to 19k in subsidy. a previous draft of the plan had claimed up to 4,700 GB sites would be needed The EIp panel found We have reviewed the extensive evidence before us and hearing discussio ..read more

Guardian Housing projects are being delayed for years because of an “infra­structure crisis” caused by lack of capacity in the National Grid, council leaders have warned. Building schemes for thousands of homes are on hold, while new ­projects face delays of up to four years in some parts of the UK because of a ­lengthening queue of developers waiting to be connected. Those hoping to build new wind turbines, solar farms or micro-hydroelectric schemes face even longer waits after a deluge of new connection requests, many of them from speculative schemes. Ministers have asked the National ..read more

If they did they would be JRd to hell Also the situation in Spelthorne where rather ridiculously they claim tyhey were previously buiiled into GB release I hope inspectors are tough on such palapable nonsense The Council does recognise that the transitional arrangements in paragraph 230 of the updated NPPF indicate that plans such as the Solihull Local Plan should be examined under the previous version of the Framework. Thus, the direct consequence of this is clear. However, the Council believes that the situation is more nuanced as there are significant indirect consequences of this change i ..read more

Two announcements yesterday concerning issues we have blogged on frequently in teh past Addressing water scarcity in Greater Cambridge: update on government measures The Case for Cambridge Cambridge Delivery Group Recognising the unique context in Cambridge, the government has made a one-off commitment to work with local partners to address the deficit in water supply, until water companies bring major infrastructure online, through a new water credits system. This is underpinned by a major investment in measures to offset new demand for water in the area through retrofitting water efficient ..read more

BD Shock move follows two-day appeal launched by the retailer against last year’s landmark ruling The High Court has quashed Michael Gove’s refusal of Marks & Spencer’s plans to redevelop its flagship Oxford Steet store. The shock decision comes after a two-day appeal launched by the retailer to challenge last year’s ruling, which has been seen as a landmark case for demolish and rebuild projects. M&S operations director Sacha Berendji said the court had agreed with five out of six counts brought forward in a decision which he said “couldn’t be clearer”. “The result has been a ..read more

View of their proposed multipurpose reservoir – the first in a generation – at the intersection of the River Cam and the Ouse AJ Firewall North of Cambridge, the landscape gives way to the Fens – largely at or below sea level – and some of the most productive arable land in the UK. Intensive agriculture, energy generation and nature conservation vie for space. Here, the park amplifies ongoing work to restore the area’s wetlands and rediscover the rich pre-enclosure landscapes. Wicken Fen is 125 years old and one of the most species-rich places in the country. The National Trust has long-term ..read more

Here In terms of how quickly housing is built and the price at which it is sold, instead of building houses as quickly as possible, a range of evidence shows housebuilders tend to build them at a rate that is consistent with the local absorption rates, ie, the rate at which houses can be sold without needing to reduce their prices. (a) The extent to which housebuilders can expand their supply in a local area is inherently limited by the extent to which they can get hold of further land with planning permission in the area. As a result, the effect of lowering their prices is more likely to bri ..read more

If a site is allocated in a development plan para 11a applies If it is not or otherwise contrary to a development plan, considered as a whole of course, para iid applies You cannot apply both 11a and 11d, 11d is designed as a matter of policy to override the development plan (iid), I call this the ‘totally wobbly balance’ approach to writing committee reports. If a proposal complies with a development plan there is nothing to override. You cannot have two incompatible NPPF decision tests applying at once. Rather the failure to have a 5YHLS for a policy compliant scheme is simply part of the no ..read more

Reports suggest that Labour is considering what priorities for year one legislation on any change in government should be. Reports state no decisions have been made as to what extent housing and planning will be part of this. Planning reform takes time to get right. Boris’s botched dumb tank driven attempt to introduce zoning, a worthy ambition, shows what can go wrong. It can also take years even with a large majority – as the long overdue codification of local plan law in the levelling up bill showed. Their also needs to be a codification of Development management law, but labour should take ..read more