Council calls for planning reforms over “incredibly frustrating” five-year housing land requirements

Braintree District Council has voiced frustration with the national planning system and the need to evidence a five-year housing land supply after calculating that it will not meet its land supply targets.

Cllr Gabrielle Spray, Cabinet Member for Planning and Infrastructure at the Conservative-controlled council, said it “is incredibly frustrating that we find ourselves continually challenged on our housing supply which we believe facilitates unplanned, speculative development as it is heavily weighted in a developer’s favour”.

As part of its annual housing land supply update, the local authority has calculated that it cannot currently demonstrate a five-year housing land supply for 2022-2027, with it sitting at 4.86.

Councils must demonstrate they have enough land supply to meet the new homes target set by the Government for the next five years.

The number of homes needed to be built in the Braintree district is calculated by adding the Government’s annual target of 716 new homes in the Local Plan to the shortfall of homes delivered since 2013. In Braintree’s case, the number of new homes it can show it can provide over the next five years is 4,851, against a target of above 4,986.

The National Planning Policy Framework, which sets out planning rules, states that if a local authority does not have a five-year housing land supply, a tilted balance comes into play. The council said that this means there is a “presumption in favour of sustainable development” on land not allocated for housing in the Braintree District Local Plan, unless the negatives of a development significantly outweigh the positives.

Commenting on the circumstances, Cllr Spray said: “We’ve got to bear this in mind when deciding applications or defending appeals against any refusals. Residents should be assured that the district is not a ‘free for all’ for developers who must still justify their applications against nationally-set planning policies.

“We will always fight where we can against unsustainable, poorly designed developments and ensure the infrastructure such as roads, schools, health and sports facilities are also there to support our desire to make sure the Braintree district continues to be a great place for residents to live, work and thrive.”

Cllr Spray called for planning reforms, noting that: “The national planning system may not be perfect but every decision we make must comply with the way it currently operates and not how we might wish things to be.

“This situation shows why the planning system needs reform, which we’ve been lobbying the Government very hard for, in the hope that it will create a more engaging, equitable and effective locally led planning system to give our communities more certainty that the right homes will be built in the right places across the Braintree district.”

In 2021, the council raised similar concerns about the planning system after a Planning Inspector declared that the local authority couldn’t demonstrate a five-year housing land supply and was somewhere between 4.7 and 4.9 years.

All four political group leaders at Braintree sent a letter to the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities following the Planning Inspector’s decision to express frustration regarding the planning system and how it appeared to be facilitating unplanned development.

Adam Carey