Pickles allows appeal for 125-home development near Birmingham

In allowing the appeal, the SoS found against the Council that there was a significant shortfall in the 5 year housing supply and that the significant shortfall in deliverable housing land supply "heavily outweighed" the considerations weighing against the proposed development.

The planning application sought permission for 125 homes with associated parking space, access, infrastructure and open space at Moat House Farm. Solihull refused the application in July last year.

The SoS's decision letter concluded that the application must be considered favourably, due to the lack of housing in the area.

"At the forefront of these [considerations] I place the national policy requirement to consider favourably planning applications for housing where there is less than a five year supply of deliverable sites," the SoS decision letter said.

The lack of available housing in the area "heavily outbalanced" other considerations that weighed against the development, the SoS said.

The range of housing and design of the proposed development were found to be acceptable by the SoS, who concluded that the development would accord with the character and appearance of the area.

The developers' agreement to contribute £125,000 towards improvements at the local infant school was concluded to be a "reasonable contribution". The contribution was in mitigation of the concerns raised about the capacity of local schools, given the projected rise of local residents as a result of the proposed development.

On balance of all the infrastructure concerns, "[the development] would make every reasonable provision to address the impact it would have upon local services and infrastructure", the SoS said. 

In response to the concerns raised about the impact of the proposed development on healthcare provisions, the SoS concluded that "the planning system cannot be held responsible for the expansion of the existing healthcare infrastructure".

"This appeal decision is particularly noteworthy to those looking to challenge Council evidence that they do have a 5 year housing supply," said planning law expert Richard Ford of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-law.com. "The methodology used is key."