Putting housing in the right place... Sorting out an inherited planning mess

Our current council administration is working hard to stop speculative development despite inheriting a planning mess and massive new targets.

Our villages have seen over 40% growth in housing in recent years and yet we continue to see new developments proposed and approved. As a result I'm regularly asked 'Why is this and what can we do to curb this?' As someone who has personally been impacted by such developments I do understand. So here is the answer and why pointing the finger at the current district council administration is somewhat unfair and unhelpful.

Government targets and local plans

The government sets targets for new house building for each local authority based on a standard formula, targets that are reviewed and updated regularly, Authorities must then produce a local plan in which they lay out how they want their area to develop and identifying the locations where new housing will go. This is a lengthy, involved process, not least because parish and town councils local plans may be taken into consideration, but once completed the plan is presented to and accepted by the government.

Planning decisions and land supplies

Local plans help guide local planning decisions alongside other factors. Where major developments are proposed in designated development areas they are likely to be viewed favourably, while those outside of these are likely to get refused. A key measure here is something called the '5 year land supply'. This the number of houses that are going to be built in the next five years, which has to be determined by the council constantly asking each developer when they intend to build on approved land. Importantly here, it is not the number of approvals that counts but the number that will actually be built and if this number is less than the government target then planning refusal becomes harder and must be justified on other factors.

Refusals and appeals

But a developer can appeal to the government planning inspectorate against a refusal. They look at the target, local plan and '5 year land supply' and if the plan is not up to scratch or the 5 year land supply is below the target, will almost always uphold the appeal, overturning he local authorities decision. But this is an expensive process, involving lawyers, which favours developers. They can cover the legal costs in house prices, while . Councils have to use our tax money, which is not limitless and whose use may affect finances for other services. But local plans work, as I personally have experienced. For over 25 years appeals to build what is now Masons Grove, in North Leigh, were turned down because the local plan stated that village boundaries could not be extended.

So what happened in West Oxfordshire?

Well the current local plan (2011-2031) was created by the previous WODC (Tory) administration who somewhat foolishly agreed to take on Oxford City’s unmet target, as well as their own – and tried to put these in a number of strategic sites, such as 'Witney North' (all of which were voted against by local LibDems). For lots of reasons, including the reluctance of developers to advance their plans, none of these strategic sites have yet been developed. So the 5 year land supply dropped and opened the door to speculative development. Fields around villages were bought up and the inevitable planning refusal then appealed against, with the inspector looking at the massive targets, unfulfilled plan and negative land supply before upholding the appeals. This started well before the current council administration (remember the 'Hands off North Leigh' campaign 10 years ago?) and led to many of the new developments we now have and are continuing to see approved and built around our villages.

But we don't have the infrastructure for these developments

While generally true, developers address this by building amenities such as shops, while entering into infrastructure contracts with councils. The money they provide - called S106 money - is specifically to pay for council provided infrastructure; the new schools, road improvements, leisure facilities necessary to support the development. However the same is not required for infrastructure provided by private companies such as Thames Water, who we know is in a dire state (see blog here) and whose facilities cannot cope. To address this the council administration has started applying what are called 'Grampian Conditions'. These are legally binding conditions tied to a development that, in our case, say no new house can be occupied until there is adequate sewage and water infrastructure in place. While this goes some way to addressing this issue, there's still the issue with government provided infrastructure such as major transport infrastructure and our local council administrations and MP's continue to lobby the government to address this via rail and road improvements, In short the current administration (Lib Dem) want infrastructure, including water facilities, ahead of housebuilding

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New government making matters worse.

When the current administration took over in 2022 it immediately started a review of the local plan to address the crazy targets. But it takes time to do this, as there is a lengthy process to be followed. It also started to fix the 5 year land supply issue but this is also challenging. The system incentivises developers to hold back building to lower the land supply figure so as to get more approvals. But progress was made on both of these and they had established a 4.7 year land supply until, in August 2024, the new government threw a spanner in the works. They not only committed to building 1.5 million new homes during the current parliament, resulting in another massive hike to our new housing target, but made these targets mandatory. They also stated that councils such as WODC were getting in the way of these plans by refusing too many applications, so were going to take decisions out our hands by changing the planning rules. In short not only do they want us to build more new housing but want to take away our ability to determine where these go and when.

So where does this leave us?

Well the WODC administration (LibDem) is now working hard to create a new local plan that incorporates the new government figures, with the focus on enhancing urban centres, such as Witney and Carterton, and halting speculative development and village sprawl. But having inherited a mess, with overambitious targets that have now been increased by the current government, and a plan that opened the door wide to speculative development it is a tough challenge. They are getting there and the new plan will deliver. In the meantime the council finds itself between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand local residents think the council is being too soft and is letting developers build as they like while on the other hand the government think the council are refusing too many applications, are demanding they build more and are threatening to take planning decisions out of their hands. In the meantime developers continue to try to exploit the situation, a situation that will only be resolved once the new plan is in place.

And finally...

There are some other aspects to planning and development that need touching on. Firstly, house prices in this area are high making it difficult for people to get onto the housing ladder. The council continues to ensure 'affordable housing' is being built with almost 240 affordable homes built in 23/24 and a further 300 or so with planning granted. Secondly it is important that new housing goes in appropriate locations and the council has been working with relevant bodies and groups to ensure housing is not built on areas where for example there is a significant flood risk.

In conclusion...

We do need to continue to build new houses but these do need to go in the right places and need to be of the right type. The planning rules as they stand work against councils and in favour of developers, a situation that could become worse if proposed planning changes by the government are implemented. The LibDem Council is working hard on the local plan and 5 year land supply figure to fix the planning mess they inherited, while they continue to demand that infrastructure is put in place before housing.