CORNWALL Council has welcomed a successful legal challenge of a government policy which would have restricted local planners’ abilities to ask developers to provide affordable housing on small housing applications.

The proposals by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government would have limited the use of Section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 so that it could continue to be used to seek contributions from developments under ten dwellings in urban areas, and five dwellings in rural areas in order to mitigate the harm of developments on local infrastructure such as highways and education and to provide affordable housing.

Cornwall Council provided evidence in support of the judicial review brought by West Berkshire Council and Reading Borough Council to highlight the impact of the imposition of a national rule on different local markets.

Following the successful challenge the Government has now removed these limits from national planning policy guidance. Councillor Edwina Hannaford, Cornwall Council portfolio holder for planning, said: ‘This is about giving local authorities the ability to make decisions about applications in their areas. I agree with the judgement that this issue was one best set locally as part of the development of our Local Plan rather than imposed across the country.

‘In Cornwall 26 percent of previous permissions were on sites under 10 units. The change brought into being suddenly last November has already had an impact upon our ability to support the delivery of affordable housing.

‘We recognise there needs to be a balance on all these issues, but the Cornwall Local Plan is the appropriate place to test what works in Cornwall, not a blanket statement for all parts of the country.’