The Planning Risk Around Your Client’s Property May Have Just Changed
No planning application. No diggers. No obvious warning. But the development risk around a property can still change – and for buyers and the solicitors advising them, the latest Housing Delivery Test results are a good example of why looking at planning applications alone may not tell the whole story.
Ten councils that did not previously face the presumption in favour of sustainable development as a result of their Housing Delivery Test performance or a five-year housing land supply shortfall are now subject to it following the latest results.
That matters because land that may have looked unlikely to be developed could now be sitting within a very different planning environment.
Ten councils. One significant change.
The Housing Delivery Test measures how many homes local authorities have delivered against the number required. The latest results show that 93 authorities delivered less than 75% of their housing requirement between 2022 and 2025.
Many of those authorities were already subject to the presumption in favour of sustainable development because of previous Housing Delivery Test results or shortcomings in their five-year housing land supply. Ten, however, were not.
This doesn’t mean development will automatically be approved, nor does it mean every field, car park or vacant piece of land suddenly becomes a building site. What it does mean is that the planning context has shifted, potentially changing how certain applications are considered and increasing the significance of sites that could be brought forward for housing.
Your client’s search could say nothing. That doesn’t mean there’s nothing to find.
Imagine your client is purchasing a property overlooking open land. There is no current planning application and no planning permission. On the face of it, there may be little to raise concern.
But what if that land has been promoted for development? What if it appears within strategic housing assessments, sits within an emerging Local Plan or has characteristics that make it a realistic development opportunity? What if the local authority is under increasing pressure to deliver new homes?
Now add a significant change to the council’s planning position.
Suddenly, simply checking whether there is a live planning application doesn’t feel like enough.
A planning application tells you what somebody is proposing today. It doesn’t necessarily tell you what could happen tomorrow.
Development risk starts long before an application appears
This is the gap DevAssist was created to address.
Our range of reports helps property professionals look beyond nearby planning applications to understand potential development risk. Depending on the report selected, this can include relevant planning history, Local Plan policy, strategic housing information and land with potential for future development, helping you choose the level of investigation that suits your client’s property and needs.
This distinction matters. By the time a planning application appears, months or even years of activity may have already taken place behind the scenes through site promotion, planning policy and the Local Plan process.
For a buyer making one of the largest financial commitments of their life, finding out after completion that the land behind their new home has credible development potential is far too late.
Are we asking the right planning question?
The latest Housing Delivery Test results highlight a wider issue for conveyancers and their clients. When assessing the surroundings of a property, the question shouldn’t simply be “Is there a planning application nearby?”
A better question is “Could this land be developed?”
Planning policy moves, housing pressures change, Local Plans evolve and land is continually being promoted for future development. Sometimes the risk surrounding a property can change significantly before anything visible changes on the ground.
Your client’s view might look exactly the same today, but that doesn’t necessarily mean its future hasn’t changed.
DevAssist helps property professionals look beyond what is already in the planning system and identify potential development risk before their clients commit. Get in touch to find out which of our reports is right for your client and how it can help you see what a standard search could miss.
