Council at risk of more speculative developments due to five-year housing land supply
24/04/2026
It comes after a successful appeal by a developer over their application to build in Brackley
by Nadia Lincoln, Local Democracy Reporter
West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) has been told it is at risk of facing an increased number of speculative planning applications, after a recent appeal found it could not prove it had a five-year housing land supply.
Local authorities must produce an annual statement setting out how many homes they are likely to deliver at suitable sites in future years. If they cannot demonstrate that they have enough housing sites coming forward to hit housing targets for the next five years, a ’tilted balance’ in favour of development is applied, impacting decision-making.
This means planning officers and elected members must give more weight to an application’s benefits against its adverse impacts. Local authorities in this position may face more speculative applications as they are often proactive schemes that target councils with weak planning policies, who face a higher bar to refuse plans.
WNC produced its most recent annual Housing Land Availability (HLA) Report in June last year, identifying a 5.5-year supply as of April 1, 2025. However, in a recent appeal into plans for 700 homes on the eastern edge of Brackley, the Inspector concluded that the council could not evidence this and that its supply actually sits around 4.6 years.
Members were told at a planning policy meeting on Wednesday (April 22) that a number of homes that they had counted in their calculations were challenged by the planning inspector.
Richard Wood, head of planning policy at WNC, added that the council has around 15,000 units that currently have outline permission or are allocated in local plans, but that they can’t all be included in the HLA due to issues evidencing their progression.
Without any additional information from developers, it is very difficult to provide firm evidence of delivery within a certain timescale. Mr Wood said there was no incentive or requirement for developers to engage.
“It’s stacked for the developer the way the system operates, there’s no doubt about it,” he told members.
Cllr Bob Purser (Labour, Abington and Phippsville) added: “It’s in their interest not to tell us so therefore we can’t demonstrate it, then they can put in any speculative bid for any site, and then they win with tilted balance applied.”
The report states that an increase in speculative applications as a result of the Brackley decision is “expected”.
A new Housing Land Availability assessment, as of April 1 of this year, is currently underway and will be reported back to the committee in due course.
Published: by the Banbury FM News Team
Reader's opinions
