BM Rural Outlook - Flipbook - Page 31
28 | Rural Outlook Issue 21
Planning & Development | 29
Resolve issues in advance
Delivering housing –
threats and opportunities
It should be easy to sell land for housing these days:
the Government has set an ambitious target for
building new homes, last year’s lockdowns saw a
shortfall in completions and councils are struggling
to come up with the five-year land supply they are
required to show.
In reality, though, there are almost
as many constraints as there are
opportunities, and a successful land sale
needs expert professional help if it is
to clear the many hurdles that stand in
the way. In a recent survey, one third of
housebuilders said planning delays were
the main challenge they faced, followed
closely by a lack of available land.
“While there can be technical difficulties
to overcome, the two biggest mistakes
landowners make are doing nothing
or doing something without taking
professional advice at an early stage,”
explained Oliver Robinson, who heads
up Batcheller Monkhouse’s Tunbridge
Wells-based rural department.
“The current Government target is to
build 300,000 homes per year, but there
is no guarantee how long that policy
will remain in place, and developers can
only deal with so many sites at any one
time, so landowners need to be taking
advantage of the opportunities now and
getting ahead of the game.:“But they also
need to take advice at an early stage.
No-one wants the headache of a scheme
being refused by a planning officer
because the proper processes were not
carried out at the start of the project. The
site has to be credible and stand up to
scrutiny.”
The current Government
target is to build 300,000
homes per year, but there is
no guarantee how long that
policy will remain in place.
Making up 2020 shortfall
New home completions across the UK
in 2020 were 15% down on the number
achieved the previous year, thanks
to coronavirus, but finding land to fill
that shortfall and top up councils’ land
supply banks is not straightforward.
The Green Belt, the South Downs
National Park, flood zones and Areas of
Outstanding Natural Beauty all restrict the
land available – or need careful mitigation
– and land located away from existing
settlements is seen to be unsustainable
and not compliant with planning policy.
“The ideal site is a block of land on the edge
of an existing settlement which forms a
natural extension and links in neatly with
shops, bus routes and services, but life is
rarely that simple,” Oliver said. The greatest
demand, he added, was for sites suitable
for between 100 and 500 units.
It also helps if there is a local plan in
place, as that simplifies things from the
outset, but local authorities haven’t exactly
shone in recent years in terms of getting
those in place. While that can provide an
opportunity for a planning appeal, Oliver
believes that life is easier when the council
knows what it wants and where it wants it.
“If the council has a policy you can follow
it, but if that policy is 20 years out of date,
life gets complicated,” he said.
Finding a suitable site is only half the
battle. “There are other issues such as
historic overages, restrictive covenants,
access problems, title issues and existing
tenants, all of which need resolving as
early as possible,” Oliver explained. “They
can all be overcome with the assistance
of our professional department, but they
need tackling sooner rather than later.”
Batcheller Monkhouse has considerable
experience in negotiating with third
parties and neighbouring land owners
to make sure the issues are resolved
before putting the site forward. The
firm can also assist in negotiations for
additional parcels of land needed for
access, visibility splays or drainage
ponds, for instance.
With planning applications
for large sites potentially
costing several hundred
thousand pounds, cash that
landowners would rather not
risk laying out in advance,
many sites are now handled
by land promoters
“With overage payments, for example, if
the original percentage negotiated when
the land was sold makes the scheme
unworkable, we can negotiate a better
deal so that the third party gets a lower
percentage of something, rather than a
bigger chunk of nothing,” Oliver said.
“The important thing to realise is that
there is a huge benefit in dealing with
these matters at the start of the process.
It makes the application more likely to
succeed, avoids the risk of abortive costs
and speeds up the sales process. Left
unresolved, of course, they can stop a
project in its tracks completely.”
With planning applications for large
sites potentially costing several hundred
thousand pounds, cash that landowners
would rather not risk laying out in advance,
many sites are now handled by land
promoters. This involves the promoter
dealing with the technical issues,
arranging site surveys and obtaining
planning permission working alongside
Batcheller Monkhouse’s planning
department. At the end of that process
the firm’s agency team promotes the site
to housebuilders on the open market.
Removing risk,
maximising returns
Oliver Robinson
o.robinson@batchellermonkhouse.com
“As well as removing a lot of the risk
and the cost from the venture, this also
means that the landowner gets the best
price for the land, as it is sold on the open
market,” said Oliver. “The promoter earns
a percentage when the land is sold but
does all the work and takes all the risk
up front.”
Whether the landowner chooses a
promotion agreement or the more
traditional options route, the team will
advise on the commercial terms agreed
and seek to protect the landowner’s
interest at all times. “As you can imagine,
there are plenty of pitfalls so we would
advise landowners not to sign up to
any kind of deal without talking to a
professional adviser first,” Oliver added.
“There are certainly opportunities out
there, but the threats are very real too.
The biggest threat, though, is from doing
nothing. That may see the window of
opportunity close behind you.”
The ideal site for development is one on the edge of an existing settlement