Heavy criticism for Whitehall as council lays bare relentless government changes obstructing local planning process
Test Valley Borough Council (TVBC) has criticised the repeated and relentless government changes to the planning system, saying they have left the authority with no realistic choice but to consider a different route to adopting its Local Plan.
The Local Plan sets out the policies the council uses to make planning decisions and identifies where development should take place across the borough.
While TVBC had been making strong progress on its new plan, this has been significantly undermined by repeated government intervention in the planning system.
These changes, which are outside the council’s control, have directly disrupted the viability of the plan. This means the council will likely switch to a new Local Plan timetable, taking into consideration further government-mandated changes in reorganising local government.
Despite facilitating plan-led delivery of new housing over many years, central government changes to the National Planning Policy Framework have imposed a 78% increase in Test Valley’s housing requirement without any transitional arrangements.
This sharp rise brought in overnight caused the borough’s housing land supply to fall to 2.5 years - well below the required five-year target – creating immense and immediate pressure on infrastructure.
As a direct consequence of these national changes, the council was required to find and consult on even more development sites before it could make progress with its Local Plan. During that government-imposed delay, developers have increasingly submitted “speculative” planning applications on a large number of sites across the borough. As a result, the Local Plan is rapidly being overtaken by events, further undermining the process.
Further challenges also emerged through the Local Plan consultation. In a rare occurrence, landowners withdrew parts of the sites at Weyhill, Stockbridge and Appleshaw, reducing the number of homes that could be delivered through the draft plan.
At the same time, further government-led changes are reshaping the wider system. Council boundaries will change through local government reorganisation, and powers over long-term housing planning will transfer to a new mayor for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. These overlapping national reforms have created overwhelming uncertainty and instability at a local level.
As a result, councillors will now consider moving to a new approach that reflects the latest government requirements and is more resilient to further change.
Leader of Test Valley Borough Council, Councillor Phil North, said: “Producing a Local Plan always includes very difficult decisions, balancing the need for new homes, including new affordable homes with the impact those decisions will have on existing residents’ lives and local infrastructure. In early 2024, we had identified several sites across the borough that we were recommending for development, building on our good record of delivering new housing in a plan-led way. However, this government’s 78% increase in our housing figure imposed mid-way through the process has led to at least a two-year delay and a situation where developers are putting in speculative applications, which are much more likely to be approved because we don’t have a five-year housing land supply. The government is directly responsible for creating this situation. They say they believe in a plan-led system, but their actions don’t match their words.
“Their complete lack of joined-up thinking, coupled with local government reorganisation has made it almost impossible for councils to produce sound and deliverable Local Plans that aren’t being overtaken by events. Despite best efforts to do the right thing, we can’t hold back the tide. This is not unique to Test Valley with many other local planning authorities, including Winchester and East Hampshire, switching to the new process and trying to coordinate a future plan that has regard to the new local government geography post-reorganisation.”
TVBC’s cabinet member for planning, Councillor Phil Bundy, added: “The government states that it is committed to ‘plan-led’ development, yet it has created a situation across the country that indicates the very opposite is true. This has resulted in homes being proposed in the wrong places at the wrong time, many in unsustainable locations.
“This is not about local failure - it is the direct result of national policy decisions that have made the system harder to manage and less certain for communities. We have made clear to government that these changes make it incredibly difficult to run a transparent process which is unacceptable.
“As the government has placed the council between a rock and a hard place, we are therefore considering not submitting our Local Plan in December, as to do so would be utterly pointless considering the number of speculative applications that are likely to gain permission before a government-appointed inspector would even have the time to assess our plan. Instead, we are considering a different adoption process. Whilst far from ideal, this is now the most responsible way to try and secure a robust and deliverable plan for our residents in the future.”
The proposal to switch to the new process will be discussed at a council meeting on Wednesday 22 July.