MrsP has recently inherited a bit of land in the leafy Surrey/Hants borders. It’s a rectange that (according to Google Earth) is around 300m x 75m, so about 5.5acres. An area about 25m deep all along one of the long edges is oak woodland which slopes down to a small stream then the other side is just pasture/meadow. One small part has been used by a relative to keep goats on for years, but the rest has just been mowed once a year and that’s it.

It’s on the outskirts of a village, so has single houses on (rather) large plots on 3 neighbouring sides, and similar one field away in other directions. However the downside is that there are 2 planning policies in force :

“Countryside Beyond the Green Belt
In the Countryside beyond the Green Belt defined on the Proposals Map and outside rural settlements identified in Policy XX, the countryside will be protected for its own sake.
Building in the open countryside away from existing settlements will be strictly controlled.”

and

“Areas of Strategic Visual Importance
The Council will seek to ensure that the appearance of Areas of Strategic Visual Importance, as shown on the Proposals Map, is maintained and enhanced. Development inconsistent with this objective will not be permitted.”

So, what chance of getting planning approval for us to build a modest property on around 1/2 acre (at most), which would effectively be infill the existing housing in the area, be screened from the main public view of the site and would ensure ongoing maintenance and improvement the rest of the site?

I’m thinking a snowball in hell would be on the optimistic side, but MrsP reckons that there’s been a bit of a change in government planning policy to promote this sort of development.

I think there has to be a ‘presumption in favour’ now.

Might be worth seeing if there’s any other development going on locally (councils have online planning portals now) and deciding if any match your circumstances – if there’s a precedent then it’ll make like easier.

Depends if it is part of the garden and hence designated as part of what would be currently ‘residential use’ then you have a slim chance. Sounds like a field to me so looks v unlikely.

It’s not residential at the moment so it’ll be a change of use as well. Hence my unbridled optimism…

There used to be something called agricultural occupancy condition, where a farm owner or worker gets to use the land as residential, but a commuter would not. It severely limits the resale value, though. Good thing you’ve had those goats on there!

Blow those goats – no chance of a change of use. The NIMBYs will tear you to shreds

Flood risk may be a deal killer if it’s in a flood zone and appropriate mitigation is unfeasible. You can check if it’s in a floodzone on the EA website.

We’re currently looking at an old council lot, all we did was phone the local council and ask their opinion. They didn’t seem too keen, but they do have to look at it in a correct manner and cant just flippantly say no.
However in your case you are not going to have any huge outlay as you already own the land so you’re not taking a punt in that area!
I’d say quick chat with a good local architect, feel the water with him then just put in an application for outline planning. It would be a huge return for a very small investment if it came off….

Can’t see how you could use infill as a reason as there would be a big gap to the other properties. Infill is more for gaps between rows of houses.

If there are houses on either side then you “technically” are inside if the developed area – talk to the planners BUT go in to the council and smile rather than calling them.
Makes a huge difference

Does the Council have a ‘five year supply of deliverable housing’? If not, then any policy that restricts residential development can be considered to be ‘out of date’, and permission must be granted unless the adverse impacts of doing so would ‘significantly and demonstrably’ outweigh the benefits. So, the bar for refusal is set quite high in these circumstances.

Although this approach is usually applied to large schemes, where the contribution to the Council’s housing supply would be quite substantial, there is no reason why is can’t also apply to an application for a single dwelling – particularly when the benefits (i.e. addressing a housing shortfall), outweigh the adverse impacts (which in this case might be visual amenity etc.)

Government is currently trying to ‘boost significantly the supply of housing’, so if an application is refused, and you took it to appeal, the current direction of government policy is in your favour.

All Government planning policy is set out in a document called the NPPF. Check to see if any housing appeals have taken place recently within the local authority area – as part of the appeal, the appellant will have interrogated the Council’s five year housing supply, in order to justify their own scheme.

Do you actually want to live there? Why not go for planning for a row of houses then move it on or sell it to a developer as is. The cash will buy something nice in another area. It doesn’t sound like the ideal plot for a ‘modest’ property

Thanks for all the tips & info so far – sounds like my unreserved pessimism is a little too strong. I’ll have a bit more of a dig around recent applications/appeals to see what I can find. And yes it’d be a lovely place to live and a row of houses would be totally out of character, I wouldn’t even consider that sort of application.

Read the Local Plan, look at other devlopments and discuss with planning office. Currently looking at one of these but for an existing outbuilding and its still tough.

Additional option is to start using the site for perfectly legitiate but totally objectionable purposes, such as storing multiple brightly rainbow coloured shipping containers, and rusting cars (drained of all fluids so no environmental isues) piled on top of each other. Couple of years of that and they’ll welcome a nice house.

Either way dont be in a hurry!

Which planning area in Surrey? Some are stricter than others, but I’d say you got about a 100-1 chance with the most lenient council!

Sorry!

Go and talk to the planning officer for the local council. he will explain what the local policies are and what (if any) buildings would be allowed. If nothing else it would confirm your worst fears without having to spend any money.

It really is a no brainer IMHO. Did the same for the father in law about 5 yrs ago. He bought a bit of spare garden either side of his bungalow. I mentioned it was a good sized plot and would he like me to get an architect round? He went for it, architect wasn’t convinced (also a town planner) but we plumped for 5 small ish houses. It got passed no bother at the first stage even after several objections. Developers changed it to two 5 beds.
Bungalow original value was 250k, it sold for 495k.
He was happy, I moved up the inheritance ladder 😉

Is this around Haslemere etc? If so it’s now in the South Downs National Park so good luck with that.

I used to work as a planning officer at Guildford, and new development on previously unused land that hadn’t been earmarked for development in the local plan within the urban area….

You can guess the rest really

Ply the planning officers with Absynth and cocaine.
Take photos of them in compromising positions with goats.
Robert’s your mother’s brother.
Planning sorted.