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A planning inspector has granted outline planning permission for up to 290 new homes on an unallocated site on the edge of Sittingbourne in Kent.
At the inquiry, the Council had claimed that it could demonstrate a five-year housing land supply, on the basis that its local housing need figure should be calculated using an affordability ratio published after the agreed base date. The inspector rejected that approach, considering it to produce “a skewed outcome”. He found that supply stood at only 4.1 years, with “no short-term prospect of a new Local Plan resolving the shortfall”. In those circumstances, he gave significant positive weight to the scheme’s delivery of market housing and only limited weight to the scheme’s conflict with the adopted spatial strategy. He also gave substantial weight to the scheme’s provision of 30% of homes as affordable, noting that unmet needs for affordable housing in the Borough are “acute”. Applying the titled balance at §11(d)(ii) of the NPPF, he concluded that the adverse impacts of the scheme (including landscape harms and the loss of Best and Most Versatile agricultural land) would not significantly and demonstrably outweigh its benefits.
The appeal decision is available here.
Zack Simons and Isabella Buono acted for the successful appellant, Hallam Land Management Ltd, instructed by Owen Jones of LRM Planning.
