Councils spent £50 million on opposing development - HBF

Local authorities have spent more than £50 million of taxpayers’ money on opposing new homes development over the past three years, according to a Freedom of Information (FoI) exercise the Home Builders Federation has undertaken.

This is money also spent by the Planning Inspectorate (PINS), which, as an executive agency of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) deals with planning appeals. HBF’s FoI requests also reveal that 50% of appeals concerning housing were approved by PINS.

Between 2020/21 and 2022/23, each local council spent an average of £45,000 per year on legal advice relating to planning appeals. This, HBF’s research finds, totals £15 million a year nationally.

But there is a great variation in spending across councils, according to HBF. Some councils have spent “significantly more” on legal advice. For example:

• During the three year period, the top ten councils alone spent £5 million. These local authorities were Medway Council, Central Bedfordshire, Basingstoke & Deane Borough Council, Uttlesford District Council, Kingston upon Thames, Southwark, Swale Borough Council, Shropshire Council, Mid Suffolk District Council and Tendring District Council. Medway spent the most, at £680,000 over the period.
• A fifth of councils spent more than double …