Developers bypass local planners after ‘concern’ over wait

ACONTROVERSIAL plan to build hundreds of new homes on a wildlife-rich meadow in South Bristol could be decided by the Government after Homes England decided to take its development plan straight to appeal.

The Government’s land and property agency will now ask the Government’s planning inspectorate to decide on its plans for 260 new homes on Brislington Meadows, bypassing city councillors altogether.

Homes England wants to build 260 new homes on the greenfield site in Brislington, and applied for planning permission on April 12 this year. Bristol City Council has a statutory maximum of 16 weeks to decide, and in theory should have done so by early August this year.

But major planning applications are currently taking more than a year to go through the planning process at City Hall.

But Homes England, the UK Government’s land and development arm, has instead decided not to wait any longer, and has lodged an appeal for ‘non determination’. This means that rather than city councillors deciding on the plans, it will go before the Planning Inspectorate to decide on the scheme.

Homes England is an executive non departmental public body, sponsored by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities – the same Government department that runs the Planning Inspectorate.

In a statement, Homes England said its plans for 260 homes at Brislington Meadows were drawn up ‘in response to the city’s growing housing crisis and in line with the longstanding local plan, which allocates this site for residential development’.

“The site is considered to be in a highly sustainable location, close to local shops, community facilities, employment areas and public transport infrastructure,” they said.

“We are proposing to deliver a high quality landscape-led masterplan, and for 30% of the 260 new homes to be affordable, with a commitment to delivering a 10% increase in biodiversity. The scheme has also recently received independent Building with Nature accreditation which concludes that the development will respond to housing need in a way that also responds positively to the climate emergency and supports both nature recovery and local health and wellbeing,” they added.

The spokesperson said there was “concern” at how long it was taking at City Hall.

“As the Government’s housing and regeneration agency, a core part of our remit is to accelerate housing delivery, but there is concern that the timescale for a planning decision is slipping,” the spokesperson said.

“As such, Homes England is lodging a planning appeal against non-determination of the application to ensure that a decision, made by an independent planning inspector, is taken within a reasonable timeframe.

“The programme for consideration of the appeal will be set by the Planning Inspectorate, and will allow for full involvement of interested parties including local residents. Bristol City Council will be responsible for formally notifying parties of the appeal arrangements and how representations can be made to the inspector. The project website will be regularly updated to keep people informed of the progress of the appeal,” they added.

Homes England was asked to buy the land at Brislington Meadows in 2020 by Bristol City Council to accelerate housebuilding there.

They paid around £15 million of taxpayers’ money to buy the land from three different parties. Most of the money was handed to a London-based property company, which had been stalling a deal with Bristol City Council to get homes built there. Homes England spent a couple of million pounds buying part of the Brislington Meadows land owned at the time by Bristol City Council itself, and a few hundred thousand pounds to a local businessman who owned an access strip.

City council chiefs asked Homes England to do this because they were struggling to encourage the London property firm to come up with a good plan for new homes there. Homes England initially came up with a plan for 300 homes, including 100 that would be low-rent council homes.

But within 12 months of getting Homes England to buy the land, the Mayor of Bristol, Marvin Rees announced a U-turn. Just 20 days before the May 2021 election, and with the two Labour candidates for that area with him for a photocall, Mr Rees announced that he’d decided no homes should be built on the land after all, because Bristol City Council had declared an ecological emergency, and the land was a wildlife haven.

That left Homes England potentially with what could end up being Britain’s most expensive nature reserve, so the Government’s housing agency came back in the autumn of 2021 with slightly scaled back plans for 260 new homes, and applied for planning permission to Bristol City Council – the organisation that asked them to buy the land for homes then told them they didn’t want any homes there after all.

As the Government’s housing and regeneration agency, a core part of our remit is to accelerate housing delivery, but there is concern that the timescale for a planning decision is slipping HOMES ENGLAND

Within 12 months of getting Homes England to buy the land, the Mayor of Bristol, Marvin Rees, announced a U-turn