The New-Build Planning Permission Loophole In Basingstoke & Deane Borough Council

It may well have the potential for a small-scale new-build housing development while a current planning policy loophole exists.

For the last 2 years, Basingstoke & Deane (BDBC) has not had a new-housing supply policy. The legal requirement to demonstrate a 5-year supply of housing sites to meet Government targets was not being met by BDBC, so the national Planning Inspectorate has deemed its land supply policies ‘out of date’. Although BDBC have clawed back to around a 4.7-year supply, they are still short, and their new housing supply policy might still be 2 years away from getting a new plan approved (due to the complex requirement to consult with all of its district’s communities).

What this means is that instead of judging a planning application for new housing by local BDBC rules, applications are being assessed by the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), which is straightforward and, in theory, follows a simple assessment of the balance of ‘benefit’ and ‘harm’.

Rules that would normally prohibit new housing in the countryside outside recognised settlement boundaries are not applicable in this case. This doesn’t mean that anything is being allowed in the countryside, as one of the few rules of the NPPF is that development should not be isolated. However, it does allow for small infill development plots for single or small numbers of new houses.

Applications approved at the moment are usually granted for detached houses at the ends of rows, or in gaps in rows of houses on the edge of countryside locations that were previously protected from development. Only large villages or established towns have official settlement boundaries as defined in local planning documents. As long as an application can show that the new development will not cause material visual or environmental harm, these additional piecemeal approvals are ‘benefiting’ the achievement of the required housing target.

Of course, there are two sides to this situation, with landowners (mostly homeowners) who can capitalise on obtaining planning permission for a new, valuable building plot, and neighbours who had previously assumed the land next to them had been deemed protected from development. Fortunately, the balance of benefits and harms will not easily allow for larger or out-of-character developments.

The process for such large side-garden or corner-of-field applications is the same as normal, with any clear-cut application being judged by the planning officers. However, the time taken has stretched from 2-3 months to 4-6 months recently due to application volumes for such schemes. Where local objections exceed 5, the applications are passed in the normal way to the planning committee, made up of local councillors. Although councillors can be swayed by strong local opinion, they know that denying planning permission in circumstances that pass this new test will likely result in the decision being overturned by an appeal officer. (Planning appeals are managed by the independent national Planning Inspectorate body).

We currently work with local planning consultants to assess land potential and assist with valid planning applications, maximising their chances of success. We are warning that this land supply issue may be closed down early, but without new planning policies on the immediate horizon, this is unlikely to change just yet.

The main problem is delays in the process as people rush to submit their applications.