Inspector recommends 10% uplift in housing targets for three Gloucestershire councils

The councils have also been told that the release of green belt land to meet the needs of Cheltenham and Gloucester would be justified but green belt release should not be necessary to meet Tewkesbury's housing need.

Gloucester City Council, Cheltenham Borough Council and Tewkesbury Borough Council submitted the draft Gloucester, Cheltenham and Tewkesbury Joint Core Strategy (JCS) (181-page / 10.3 MB PDF) to the communities secretary for examination in November 2014.

The JCS identified a need for around 30,500 new homes between 2011 and 2031 to support around 28,000 new jobs. Between May 2015 and April 2016 three rounds of hearings were held, new evidence was produced and the councils increased their jobs target to 39,500 and their housing target to 31,830.

In an interim report (43-page / 337 KB PDF) released at the end of May, planning inspector Elizabeth Ord said the objectively assessed need for housing should be increased to 33,500 homes to accommodate the new jobs target. Ord recommended a further 5% uplift to 35,175 homes to help in the delivery of affordable homes and to allow for slippage in the delivery of strategic allocations.

The spatial strategy in the JCS focuses on urban extensions to Cheltenham and Gloucester and strategic allocations of land for development in Tewkesbury. Ord said this strategy was "generally sound", but recommended "greater emphasis on the development potential of the wider Tewkesbury Town urban area".

The inspector said exceptional circumstances existed justifying the release of land from the green belt to accommodate the proposed urban extensions to Cheltenham and Gloucester. However, Ord said alternative sites should be considered ahead of green belt release to meet Tewkesbury's needs as "there are sustainable strategic sites available in the vicinity of the wider Tewkesbury Town area, which are outside the green belt".

Ord also recommended that the councils liaise with neighbouring Wychavon District Council and Stroud District Council "over the potential supply of land within these districts to meet the JCS area's housing requirement".

Planning expert Abigail Webb of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said: "The inspector’s decision confirms the National Planning Policy Framework's guidance on development in the green belt – that this should only be acceptable in exceptional circumstances and where it can be demonstrated that it is in the public interest."

"As a nation, we have a housing deficit which it is in the public interest to address. The three Gloucestershire councils in this case provide evidence of the housing shortfalls being faced throughout the country and what measures councils are taking to address this problem," said Webb.

"A report carried out for the BBC suggests that the number of new homes being built on the green belt between 2009 and 2015 has increased five-fold. This shows that the inspector’s decision in the Gloucestershire case is in line with a developing trend. This decision will raise concern, however, with those who identify the huge impact such projects can have on the rural landscape. Only time will tell as to how many other councils will follow this decision and allow development on green belt areas throughout the country," Webb said.