A challenge brought by Barratt Developments to a 30% affordable housing quota adopted by Wakefield City Council has been defeated in the Court of Appeal.
This morning, Arden, Carnwath and Stanley Burnton LJJ rejected the housebuilders bid to quash the policy, which has already won the backing of the former secretary of state for communities and local government, Hazel Blears.
Barratt claimed that an “overly optimistic” economic viability appraisal prepared by DTZ for the council stated that: (i) what constitutes a viable proportion of affordable housing would depend on market cycles; (ii) in the current cycle, only 5% affordable housing was viable in high–density, high–value areas; and (iii) any policy for the delivery of affordable housing would have to be flexible.
Lawyers for Barratt submitted that the government’s inspector had erred in finding that the evidence provided by DTZ was “robust and credible” and its report backed the adopted affordable housing policy.
In December 2009, the High Court ruled that the policy adopted by
Following that ruling, Barratt said that it would be forced into time–consuming negotiations over social housing levels and that it would “inevitably delay the delivery of new homes”.
Dismissing Barratt’s appeal against the High Court ruling, Carnwath LJ said that he had “some sympathy” for Barratt’s position in that the policy complained of “had limited success” in providing clear policy guidelines to developers.
“It provides one specific target of 30%, based on what is admittedly achievable only in the most favourable market conditions, but leaves everything else for negotiation on a site-specific basis.
“It may well be that since this plan was approved, other authorities and other inspectors have developed more sophisticated mechanisms for dealing with the same problem.
“However, that does not mean the conclusions reached in relation to this strategy were legally flawed,” he said.
christian.metcalfe@estatesgazette.com
