Gloucestershire will struggle to stop housing developments

The council lost its appeal for plans for 45 homes at Truman's Farm, Gotherington

Stopping housing plans in part of Gloucestershire will now be extremely difficult after a council lost its third planning appeal in a row.

Tewkesbury Borough Council chiefs have officially conceded they do not have a five year housing land supply.

This was a calculation of whether there was a deliverable supply of homes to meet the planned housing need for an area over the next five years.

The council says it had spent £500,000 on fighting and losing appeals.

Tewkesbury's supply is currently set at 3.3 years.

It means the bar would be set much higher for its planning committee if it wished to reject a housing scheme without good enough reasons, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The Borough Council had been operating under the belief that it had met the five year target but after losing appeals in which the inspector rubbished their housing figures, civic chiefs decided to change course as the total bill for fighting and losing appeals has topped £500,000.

Costly appeal process

The three appeals were over plans for 52 homes off Fleet Lane in Twyning which they lost in April 2022, the decision for 48 homes in St Margaret's Drive, Alderton went against them in June this year and only last month an inspector approved plans for 45 homes at Truman's Farm, Gotherington.

Council leader Richard Stanley said the current planning system was stacked against local authorities.

He would like to see it reformed but said they could not continue fighting and losing appeals.

"The situation that we've come into is the council is now on its third planning appeal in a row where it has been told it doesn't have a five year housing land supply," said Mr Stanley.

"We are looking at over half a million pounds spent on fighting these appeals. They don't come cheap."

Mr Stanley said there was no shortage of plans being approved but the right homes were not being built.

In November, the council will discuss a paper which will set out its position statement about what they expect from the development industry.