THE END OF 5-YEAR LAND SUPPLY

Normally I’m not one to blow my own trumpet (shut up at the back) unlike some other commentators. 

Last June, I wrote a post with the above headline except it had a question mark at the end. It was absolutely right and now you can remove the question mark.

Why did I predict that seven months ago? 

At that time I pointed out that Liz Truss was saying: ‘I want to abolish the top-down, Whitehall-inspired Stalinist housing targets’.

And Rishi was going to relax constraints such as needing to show a five-year housing land supply. And he wants Joe Biden to do that for him. (No, I haven’t been drinking.)

Surely you mean Michael Gove, the Secretary of State. I do, but he wants Beauty, Infrastructure, Design, Environment and Neighbourhood. Or BIDEN. Seriously. We’ll move swiftly on.

And so it has come to pass we have the draft Levelling Up (and Down) Bill which gives huge powers to local politicians to decide how many (if any) new homes they want.

Until now developers could appeal under the NPPF and councils could get a good slap on the wrists if they misbehaved. 

Take poor old Wealden District Council which half-way through the year already had a bill of £440,000 of costs awarded against it as a result of lost planning appeals.

In awarding costs against Wealden, where the officers had recommended approval, the Inspector said: ‘whilst it is open to elected members of a planning committee to exercise their own planning judgment, any such decision must be fully justified in the face of opposing evidence. That was not the case here.’

He continued: ‘I therefore find that unreasonable behaviour resulting in unnecessary and wasted expense… has been demonstrated and that an award of costs is justified’.

The council’s behaviour has also been called ‘the epitome of unreasonable behaviour’. Dear, oh dear, as Charles said to Liz. 

My sympathy is with the officers who recommend approval – only to see the members overturn a well-presented case.

But how about costs? And who foots the bill? Muggins, you and me.

With the LURB giving almost total control to councils to decide on numbers, there is no stick to beat them with, so new housing development will grind to a halt. Bye, bye, 300,000.

The NPPF is dead. Long live the LURB.

Have a good weekend.

Tom