A developer has lost its high court challenge over the viability of an affordable housing plan that is delaying a 750–home residential scheme near Lydney, Gloucestershire.
Mr Justice Nicol rejected the submissions by developer Robert Hitchins Ltd that the decision of the secretary of state for communities and local government to reject its plans for the development was unlawful.
The developer asked the secretary of state for a decision after it and
In October 2009, the secretary of state rejected the scheme on the ground that it failed to make adequate provision for affordable housing and other contributions.
In doing so, Robert Hitchins suggested, the secretary of state rejected its case that issues of viability in the current economy justified a reduction in the level of affordable housing on the grounds that such financial considerations were “essentially temporary”.
In written submissions before the court,
Dismissing that claim and the rest of the challenge, Mr Justice Nicol said “I consider that she was entitled to decide that the application should be refused because of the possibility that development with a higher proportion of affordable housing might be viable in the future.
“This is not a case of allowing speculation to prevail over an absence of evidence. Rather it is a case of treating inevitable uncertainty as a material consideration whose weight had to be judged and assessed by the primary decision-maker,” he said.
