What does the recent High Court decision mean for rural areas? The recent High Court decision (Dartford Borough Council v Secretary of State for Communities & Local Government) has held that the definition of ‘previously developed land’ (also known as brownfield land) within Annex 2 of the Government’s National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) excludes residential…
2016 certainly appears to have got off to a good start – with the announcement from David Cameron that the Government has promised to directly commission the building of homes on publicly owned land. This, he said, would lead to quality homes – many of which would involve smaller building companies – being built at…
Islington Borough Council has been buoyed by Government comments after it raised the issue of land prices for land where new homes are to be developed. The problem is that because of London’s spiralling land prices, developers claim that they cannot put the required amount of affordable homes into a development, because their initial costs…
A recent article in The Telegraph claims that rural campaigners fear that inappropriate developments will be forced upon communities thanks to the new Planning and Housing Bill. It states that automatic planning permission (‘planning in principle’) will be given to tens of thousands of new homes in Greenfield areas, and suggests that ministers have allowed…
During October, the government made a number of announcements alongside the new Housing and Planning Bill – all aiming to achieve the government’s ambition of creating one million homes by 2020. Some of the measures being put in place to achieve this goal will create very interesting opportunities for developers! From temporary to permanent The…
The process of making planning applications, and appealing against unfavourable decisions can be both time-consuming and costly. So, anything that can make the whole procedure easier and quicker is to be embraced. The Wheatcroft Principle is one such nugget of wisdom! At Apex Planning Consultants, we work hard to try to get applications through first…
Changes to permitted development rights were made last summer by the coalition government, in a bid to boost new housing stock. These allowed developers to secure the change of use from office to residential. These rights currently must have Prior Approval from councils – and this is set to run until the end of May…
Local planning is high on the agenda at the moment, as the Government has told councils that they have to have produced their Local plans by early 2017. Planning Minister Brandon Lewis has said that local authorities have had more than 10 years to produce plans, and that while 82 per cent of them have,…
Rural development is a hot topic – and one of our recent projects involved planning permission for a new building in Warrington, a hamlet situated to the North of Olney. The plan was to add a new building to an existing farm complex, currently comprising the commercial re-use of former agricultural buildings. These uses include…
Back in May, the Queen’s speech included a promise by the Conservatives to focus on brownfield development – that is building on previously developed sites. This is to be done using Local Development Orders (LDOs), which basically give blanket planning permission as long as the developer adheres to specific conditions. The aim of this is…
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