Government tells local authorities to use their powers to stop ‘garden grabbing’

John Healey, the Housing Minister, has told local authorities to use their powers to ban or limit the practice known as ‘garden grabbing’.

Following the introduction of the Planning Act 2008, the Government ordered an independent review in May 2009 to establish the extent of development on back gardens. Although the findings revealed that “inappropriate building” on back gardens is not a widespread problem in England, over one third of councils considered it to be an issue, particularly those in the London suburbs, Home Counties and parts of the West Midlands. However, of those who reported it to be an issue, only 5 per cent had local policies in place to stop inappropriate development on garden land.

Mr Healey has now (1) changed the official guidance for planners “to make it crystal clear that previously developed or former garden land is not necessarily suitable for development, and that the impact on the surrounding area should be considered.”, and (2) instructed the Chief Planning Officer to write to planners across the country, outlining how local authorities can refuse inappropriate development by including measures on “garden grabbing” in their annual local plan.

This could be of concern to many developers, as a lot of the land that is used for housing is built on previously used land, much of which was previously garden land.  The key word in the Minister’s statement is that “inappropriate development” will be discouraged. This has always been the case, so developers who propose sympathetic schemes should be okay. There is still a great need for new homes in the South East, especially family homes, so by discouraging “garden grabbing”, the Government could be adding even more pressure to release green belt land for development.

Jay Das, our planning law specialist, advises that the timescales for implementing this into their local plans will vary from local authority to local authority. Local Development Frameworks (LDFs) are being prepared, but many authorities do not have any in place. It could take between two and five years to change LDF policies (although the Planning Act anticipated it could be done much more speedily.) The Planning Policy Statements and Guidance will be effective immediately, and some authorities may pass supplementary planning guidance where local plan policies do not conflict and these could be effected in three to four months. Developers need to be vigilant on all policy documents being consulted upon by planning authorities. They will need to take part and respond to consultations if it affects or is likely to affect them.