Residential Developments

Planning for housing in Wiltshire

The starting point for any planning decision is the development plan.

In Wiltshire, the development plan consists of:

• Wiltshire Core Strategy, adopted in January 2015
• Wiltshire Housing Site Allocations Plan, adopted in February 2020
• Chippenham Site Allocations Plan, adopted in May 2017

Some parts of Wiltshire have Neighbourhood Plans too, and where this is the case, these are also part of the development plan.

Additionally, before Wiltshire became a unitary authority, it was made up of four districts – North Wiltshire, West Wiltshire, Kennet and Salisbury – and some of the policies from the Local Plans prepared by these District Councils are still part of the development plan.

There are also plans relating to minerals and waste, but for most planning decisions, these are less important.

The Core Strategy categorises settlements based on their size and function, and defines a settlement boundary around the larger settlements – principal settlements, market towns, local service centres and large villages. Generally, development is more acceptable within these settlement boundaries.

Land outside any settlement boundary is in “the open countryside”, where development is restricted to, generally, developments that need a countryside location (e.g. farming or tourism related) or developments for which there is a high need in Wiltshire (e.g affordable housing, housing for older people or for Gypsies and travellers).

But the development plan is only the starting point for planning decisions, because other “material considerations” also need to be taken into account.

One of the most significant material considerations is the Government’s National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).  This sets national planning policy.

The NPPF gets revised reasonably regularly.  At the time of writing, the latest version was released in December 2023, and the new Labour Government released a draft revised version in July 2024.  This revised version is expected to be finalised before the end of 2024.

The current NPPF requires most local authorities to identify five years’ worth of housing land (known as a “five year housing land supply”).

Where this is the case, planning decisions are made on what planners describe as a “level balance”.

In very basic terms, this means that all the pros and cons of a development are listed and weighted, and if the weighted pros outweigh the weighted cons, permission is granted.  If not, it is refused.

Importantly, in this scenario, any conflict with a development plan policy, including those that restrict development in the open countryside, is given full weight, and this is why it is difficult to get planning permission for new homes in the open countryside in this scenario.

On the other hand, where a local authority cannot demonstrate a five year housing land supply, it is generally easier to get planning permission for new homes, even outside settlement boundaries.

This is because planning decisions are then made based on what planners call the “tilted balance”.

This means that all the pros and cons of a development proposal are listed and weighted, but in this case, the weight of any conflict with policies that restrict housing is reduced, and planning permission should be granted unless the “adverse impacts … significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits”.

However, based on the current NPPF, local authorities that have got some way towards drafting the next Local Plan only need a four year housing land supply for decisions to be based on a level balance rather than the tilted balance.

Wiltshire is one of these, and Wiltshire claims to have identified 4.2 years worth of housing land, which would mean that planning decisions are made based on a level balance.  That would make it harder to get planning permission for new homes outside the places that the development plan supports.

But that is not the end of the story, for two reasons – the new Government plans to change the NPPF, and developers often test the housing land supply figures at appeal.

The new Labour Government’s draft NPPF proposes to scrap the 4 year housing land supply caveat, so all Councils would need to have identified a 5 year housing land supply to avoid the tilted balance.  If Wiltshire can only identify 4.2 years housing land supply, then the tilted balance would apply.

The new NPPF is due to be finalised before the end of 2024, so this will make it easier to get planning permission for new homes in Wiltshire after that.

However, things have just changed again to make it easier to get planning permission for new homes in Wiltshire even now, because an Inspector who considered a site in Westbury has just (30/8/24) concluded that Wiltshire’s claimed 4.2 years housing land supply is overly optimistic, and that it only actually has 3.85 years of supply.  The decision is here.

That means that the tilted balance applies in Wiltshire, and that makes it easier to get planning permission for new housing in Wiltshire.

So please get in touch if you would like to apply for planning permission for new housing, of whatever scale.

2nd September 2024