DEVASSIST: Minister approves major 1,700-home scheme despite conflict with local plan

A government minister has approved a large-scale residential scheme of up to 1,700 homes on unallocated farmland in Frome, overriding local plan policy objections and officer concerns.

The outline proposals, brought forward by the Land Value Alliance & Landowners Consortium, cover a 95-hectare greenfield site on the southern edge of the town. Alongside housing, the scheme includes 500 affordable homes, two care homes, employment land, a primary school and a range of local amenities.

Despite its scale and strategic nature, the site sits outside the defined settlement boundary and conflicts with the council’s adopted development plan.

Policy conflict outweighed by housing need

Planning officers had recommended refusal, highlighting concerns including transport impacts, environmental effects, landscape harm and the scheme’s departure from the local plan.

However, following a call-in by the housing secretary in early 2025, the decision was taken out of local hands.

In his assessment, inspector Stephen Normington accepted that the scheme “would not accord with the spatial strategy” but gave this only limited weight, noting that the underlying policy was based on outdated development assumptions.

Instead, greater weight was placed on the benefits of the scheme, particularly housing delivery and economic growth. These were considered to carry “significant weight”, alongside supporting infrastructure improvements and transport enhancements.

A key factor was the council’s housing land supply position. With only a 2.84-year supply identified, the presumption in favour of sustainable development was engaged.

This effectively reduces the weight of restrictive policies and shifts the balance towards approval.

Normington went further, concluding that “even a flat balancing exercise would support the grant of outline planning permission” given that the scheme’s benefits exceeded its harms.

Heritage and landscape impacts acknowledged

The site lies within the setting of two Grade II listed buildings, and both the inspector and minister accepted that the development would cause harm in this regard.

Baroness Taylor of Stevenage, determining the application on behalf of the Secretary of State, confirmed that the proposal “would fail to preserve the settings” of the heritage assets, assigning this harm “great weight”.

She also identified “visual and landscape impacts” carrying “moderate weight”.

However, these impacts were ultimately outweighed by the public benefits of the scheme, particularly the scale of housing delivery and the provision of affordable homes.

Summarising the overall balance, the minister concluded “the adverse impacts of granting permission would not significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits when assessed against policies in the framework taken as a whole”and granted approval.

A clear signal on decision-making direction

This decision illustrates how national policy priorities continue to influence planning outcomes, particularly where housing supply is constrained.

Even where proposals conflict with local plans, outdated policies and limited housing land supply can significantly reduce their weight in decision-making.

For those assessing development risk, this reinforces a key point: planning outcomes are not determined solely by existing allocations or local policy boundaries.

Large-scale schemes can come forward on unallocated land where the wider planning balance supports it, particularly in areas under pressure to deliver housing.

As a result, understanding the underlying policy context and housing supply position is becoming just as important as reviewing the site itself.

Kindly shared by DevAssist