On 10th November, the High Court ruled in favour of housebuilder CALA Homes confirming that communities secretary Eric Pickles had acted unlawfully in July when he unilaterally revoked the system of Regional Spatial Strategies in England.

His action resulted in a policy vacuum that caused confusion throughout the house building industry and directly resulted in proposals for tens of thousands of new homes being abandoned.

Over the past few months many local developers have been affected by Mr Pickles’ actions. They have had planning applications refused due to the RSS Revocation. The High Court ruling indicates that planning refusal on these grounds is now illegal. Bernadette Hillman, Head of the planning team at Debenhams Ottaway recommends that local developers should therefore consider lodging appeals, as there is now a window of opportunity for developers to get plans approved before the Decentralisation and Localism bill is launched later this month and is made Law.

Although the Government has indicated that the ruling changes little and that regard should still be given to its intention to abolish regional strategies, the fact remains that unless and until the government provides transitional measures the uncertainty and inconsistency in approach by Local Planning Authorities is likely to remain.