Killian Garvey, acting for L&Q Estates, was successful in securing planning permission for 50 dwellings in the settlement of Gotherington, Tewkesbury.
The same site had been unsuccessfully promoted for 50 dwellings at appeal in 2017. However, a number of material considerations had changed since then, which led to a different result.
One of the issues of importance was the Council’s 5 year housing land supply. The Council claimed a supply of 4.37 years, whereas the Appellant claimed it was 1.82 years. One of the key components for determining this was the question as to whether one could rely on the past oversupply of housing delivery in the onward projected supply.
The Inspector accepted the Appellant’s case that demonstrating a 5 year supply relied on ‘deliverable’ housing sites, meaning sites that would show completions ‘within five years’ (per the language of the National Planning Policy Framework). Thus, any site that had already completed its delivery necessarily could not be factored into the onward supply. Accordingly, the Appellant was successful in demonstrating that the Council’s supply was only 1.82 years and that circumstances had sufficiently changed, such that permission should now be granted.
A copy of the decision can be found here.