Conservative council leader criticises developers who ‘land bank’ housing permissions

Jonathan Ash-Edwards spoke during a meeting of the full council on Wednesday (January 26) following a question from Robert Eggleston (Lib Dem, Burgess Hill – Meeds).

Mr Ash-Edwards said: “Developers come to sit and argue – with their barristers – at planning inquiries and tell us about the need for new housing and about their ability to deliver on that site.

“They need to honour those commitments that they make when they sit in front of a planning inspector.

“It is completely unacceptable that developers talk about the housing need, talk about the ability of their site to deliver and then don’t make good progress.”

This comes after MSDC paused work on its District Plan review, which would have allocated thousands of new homes at sites across the area.

However the good news is the council recently passed its housing delivery test for the three years up to March 2021.

The issue was originally raised by the Local Government Association, which reported that more than 2.5 million homes had received planning permission from councils since 2009/10 but more than one million of those had not been built.

The association has long advocated the idea of giving councils powers to take action over un-built land which has planning permission.

This could include making it easier for councils to use compulsory purchase powers to buy the land – or even to be able to charge developers full council tax for every un-built home the moment planning permission expires.

Government targets require Mid Sussex to build hundreds of homes each year.

While it has been performing well over the past few years, delivering homes at a rate higher than required, it would only take one slow year for that performance to slump.

Mr Ash-Edwards said: “This council continually works with developers to try to facilitate and support the delivery of sites that have been approved and have been agreed through the proper process.”

Looking at the never-ending demand for new homes, he added: “You cannot live in a planning permission.

“And ultimately we need to see homes being built once they have been approved.”