Keep a close eye on promoting land for development

Owners wanting to promote land for development need to keep a close eye on their council’s Local Plan.

Many local authorities are reviewing their local planning policies following the last government’s significant change in emphasis, away from those led by the Regional Spatial Strategy to ones which comply with the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).

Within the NPPF, local authorities are not only tasked with the need to identify the number of houses required to satisfy a district’s five-year housing supply, they must also identify sites that can deliver these housing requirements which is a demanding process.  

If the local authority fails to comply with either of these requirements their housing polices will be considered “out of date”. 

In such circumstances the NPPF states that there is a presumption in favour of sustainable development, which means development can potentially take place wherever a landowner can prove the site is “sustainable” even if it is not identified for development under the local authority’s existing plan.

This is undesirable from a local authority’s perspective and so they have all worked hard to identify their five-year housing supply through the successful adoption of what most authorities call their Local Plan Part I (LLP I).  

The LLP I identifies the minimum number of additional houses required and the broad locations where it should go, including identifying some large development sites.

The local authority then needs to identify in more detail where development will go in the district’s towns and villages within which it will consider individual sites for housing, employment and community facilities. 

This will form what is known as the Local Plan Part II (LPP II) and it is during the building of this plan that landowners need to get involved if they want to promote their land for development and be identified in the emerging Local Plan.

In the Mendip District Council area, for example, the LPP I was adopted last year and the consultation phase for LLP II opened earlier this month and will close on December 16.  

This is a very important period for landowners to ensure they are promoting land for development which complies with polices set out in the LLP I.  Failure to act now could mean your land is excluded from development throughout the lifetime of the emerging local plan which in Mendip runs to 2029.

So, the message for landowners is act now and if anyone has any queries in this respect they are welcome to email me on James.Stephen@carterjonas.co.uk in the first instance for free initial advice.

James Stephen MRICS FAAV
Partner
Rural Practice Chartered Surveyor, Wells
T: 01749 683381
E: james.stephen@carterjonas.co.uk