Meaning of 'deliverable' housing sites

The Court of Appeal has considered the meaning of the phrase “deliverable sites” in the context of the requirement in paragraph 47 of the National Planning Policy Framework for a five year housing land supply. Giving the leading judgment in St Modwen v SSCLG & ERYC [2017] EWCA Civ 1643, Lord Justice Lindblom said that, to be deliverable in this sense, a site has to be capable of being delivered within five years, but it does not need to be certain or probable that the site actually will be delivered within five years. Sites can be included in the five-year supply if the likelihood of housing being delivered on them within the five year period is no greater than a realistic prospect. 

The Judge commented that, just because a particular site is capable of being delivered within five years, does not mean that it necessarily will be. He drew a distinction between the identification of deliverable sites for the purpose of showing a supply of specific deliverable sites sufficient to provide five years worth of housing against an authority’s requirements and the expected rate of delivery to be reflected in a housing trajectory. He also noted that the NPPF recognises that local planning authorities do not control the housing market. 

In giving judgment, Lindblom LJ observed that it would have been “most surprising if the Secretary of State had gone astray in his understanding and application of these fundamental components of national planning policy for the supply of housing” and that it was not likely that the inspector would have erred in the same way either. 

The Court also restated and reinforced the limits of the court’s role in construing planning policy, saying that arguments should be approached “with great hesitation”, and stressed the dangers of excessive legalism in planning cases, where decisions are subjected to “hypercritical scrutiny” and are “laboriously dissected in an effort to find fault”. The Court also warned that it had to be cautious lest a point on a s288 challenge in the courts takes on a very different shape and emphasis from that which it had before the inspector. 

A copy of the Court of Appeal judgment is available at: https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2017/1643.html.