Legal challenge over rejection by inspector of plans for 788 homes refused permission

A statutory review application lodged by the Leverhulme Estate over Wirral Council's rejection of plans for almost 800 homes on Green Belt land has been refused by the High Court on all grounds.

The metropolitan borough council had refused eight planning applications from Leverhulme, citing damage to the Green Belt.

Leverhulme then appealed the decisions behind seven of the applications, which concerned 788 homes altogether, to the Planning Inspectorate.

The inspector dismissed the appeals in September 2023, prompting Leverhulme to turn to the High Court.

The inspector cited prematurity as a main issue in her decision, noting that the estate's applications came as the council had submitted its new Local Plan for examination, meaning the emerging plan could be considered to be at an "advanced stage".

She said: "In the context of the collective scale and location of these proposals being in the Green Belt, diametrically at odds with the emerging strategy and the advanced stage of plan making, approval of the proposals would be clearly premature.

"It would undermine, prejudice and predetermine decisions about the location of new development that are central to the [emerging Local Plan]."

In its legal challenge, Leverhulme Estate advanced the following three grounds challenging her conclusions:

1. The inspector erred in her interpretation of paragraph 49(b) of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) by finding that the effect of that policy is that (i) an emerging plan should be considered to be at an "advanced stage" once it has been submitted for examination; and (ii) the number and nature of the objections to an emerging plan is irrelevant when considering whether or not a plan is at an "advanced stage".

2. The inspector error in her approach to paragraph 49(1) of the NPPF (i.e. in considering whether planning permission would predetermine decisions about the scale, location or phasing of new development that are central to an emerging plan) by:

1. failing to consider each appeal on an individual basis;
2. conflating conflict with the merging plan with a prematurity objection, and also by considering that the proposals would be premature because she was required to make findings on matters that would also be discussed at the examination into the emerging plan.

3. The inspector erred by failing to consider whether footnote 8 of the NPPF had the effect of deeming a policy of a 'Unitary Development Plan out of date on the grounds that the council did not have a five year housing land supply.

Mrs Justice Lang found all three grounds unarguable and ordered Leverhulme to pay the council's costs of preparing the Acknowledgement of Service.

Commenting on the failed legal challenge, Nigel McGurk, Head of Planning and Development for Leverhulme, said: "The bigger picture is the ongoing acute need for new family and affordable homes in Wirral.

"Leverhulme remains, through all the processes taking place, best placed to help unlock Wirral's housing shortage now and for future generations and to do so in an appropriate, viable and sustainable manner.

"Wirral Council's current trajectory will simply fail to deliver the mix of affordable and family housing that the borough urgently requires."

He said Leverhulme would continue to highlight the area's housing shortage and monitor the response of the planning inspectors regarding the next steps in Wirral's local plan process.

A spokesperson for Wirral Council said: "We are pleased to see the High Court's decision on Leverhulme's challenge to the Planning Inspectorate upholding the council's refusal of almost 800 houses in the Green Belt. We hope that this is now an end to the matter."

Adam Carey