Selling to developers

[acornfed]

Gutted. The land next to us is going to be sold to developers very soon less than two years after we bought our "forever house."
Yes - I have learnt many lessons. We just didn't think we'd care as much about the view as we do after we have lived in it. Very silly and naive I know. We were told it couldn't be developed as it backed on to a SSSi site but actually it can be as all it needs is a 15 metre buffer . I can't imagine anyone wanting to buy the property with all the uncertainty

No planning has gone in yet but the developer has bought the land, which sits just outside the settlement boundary and cleared the (beautiful) trees. My son has asthma and he probably won't be able to play in the garden much until the building work is finished.

I want to sell the house and approach the developer as our house would give him much better access to the land. Our house is worth over a million (yes I know I am very very lucky) and has a 0.75 acre plot . Our house has a restrictive covenant on though for one dwelling.
Is this easily over ruled? It seems the covenant is owned by the person who owns the land to be developed.

"It isn't In the SHLAA..."

As above: just because it hasn't been identified by the LPA doesn't mean that it can't or won't be developed.

The SHLAA will not usually try to identify Rural Exceptions sites, anyway... at risk of stating the obvious, the SHLAA is a strategic assessment, whereas any exceptions policy is, by its very nature, more applicable to 'windfall' sites.

I rather agree with your assessment of Parish Councils, but around here, some have pushed for rural housing development and some do know what’s happening on their patch. I would contact their Chair of Planning. Nothing to lose really. I would expect this possible development to have been talked about somewhere.

I would also speak to the local Planning Officer. No harm there either. What do they actually know as opposed to what is on the web site. What about looking at minutes of meetings? What about your local District Councillor? What do they know? Have fun digging!

I have another question,
If I may.

The field used to be kept in check by a farmer who cut the grass twice a year. For the past year this hasn't happened and the grass is long and over grown. Is this part of "pre application land management?" Letting something get a bit unruly?

Also you say developers keep things very very close to their chest. What can someone do to thwart things if they reveal their intentions too early?

If the farmer thinks he will sell, he probably won’t spend the time and money on cutting the grass.

Planning applications don’t take any notice of land upkeep at all. It’s just the owner not spending any money on land they are selling/have sold.

Usually small rural housing schemes are not kept close to anyone’s chest though. Usually local people are consulted on housing need and it’s driven forward by local councils being on board. I would keep digging for info. Ring up relevant councillors. What do your neighbours know?

Acorn I know you must feel devastated loosing your view but seriously it really is not the end of the world, if you move you will have to make sure you buy a house that has no view over countryside as the same could easily happen again so you may as well stay where you are if you think about it!! land will get built on its the way of the world now, nowhere is safe from development.

"If the farmer thinks he will sell, he probably won’t spend the time and money on cutting the grass."

^ This. But it can sometimes backfire.

Agriculture is about the best way there is of minimising the ecology on a piece of land (hence my only partly tongue-in-cheek suggestion about poultry, above.

It used to be a bugger when we had Code for Sustainable Homes (an 'eco' standard where you scored points for increasing the species diversity on a site, among other things). Unfortunately, there would need to be some pretty serious ecology on there to influence a Planning permission. I have seen a site fail at planning because of slow worms, though, when the developer took their eye off the ball.

Bubblesbuddy and I continue to differ on the likelihood of information being in the public domain. On smaller sites, it depends how canny the landowner/land agent/developer is, whether and how much knowledge will leak out in advance.

With larger sites it is usually deliberately publicised well in advance of the actual application (but still in a manner strictly 'PR managed' by the developer), because it benefits the application process to do so. They will usually hold 'public consultation' meetings at the local village hall, to present the scheme.

Be wary of these... developers don't run them for fun, and they're more to the developer's benefit than they are to yours. I could bore you for hours with the tricks we play with them, to manipulate attendees!

And bear in mind that with both large and small sites, sometimes what is in the public domain is deliberate misinformation.

Having read everyone's messages do you think, if I am being realistic that I just have to be prepared for the land to sell, that with the critical housing shortage a rural exception policy will come into force sooner than later and I better just put up with it or sell it?

Am I wrong to have hope this might not go through?

You clued up planning people , please be honest! Thanks

"do you think, if I am being realistic that I just have to be prepared for the land to sell, that with the critical housing shortage a rural exception policy will come into force sooner than later and I better just put up with it or sell it?"

Not at all... but I'm afraid we simply don't have enough information, from what you've told us so far, to establish how likely it is that the site will gain consent.

It could be anything from a foregone conclusion to "they're having a laugh!".

As I've said previously, I'm quite happy to take a basic look at the site and tell you, from experience and gut feel, whether it looks like the sort of site that might have a chance. On a professional level, we'd be quite happy to do the digging for you on local policy, sustainability and housing need that would give you a more concrete idea of its chances, but there is a good few hours work in this, so we'd need to charge for it.

But ultimately, all you can really do is wait until they break cover by either submitting a Planning application, or arranging a public consultation, and assessing & reacting to the application at that stage.

I’m no planning person but honestly I have seen first hand how development takes over people’s lives it becomes all consuming and causes so much stress and angst, you should watch the BBC programme on iPlayer called the new builds are coming, the first episode shows how it takes over the protestors lives it’s all consuming, and for what reason? A development of houses are going to be built, not a nuclear power plant!! and yes I do think you are on a hiding to nothing if I’m honest, but do state your grievance at least you will have tried, but don’t let it take over your life it’s really not so bad, it’s just houses!

I did watch it. However, some people wanted the homes. It is like everywhere, the noisy protesters get all the attention, but people actually need somewhere to live. When the council survey came back in favour of the housing, they said the council lied. It is usually well heeled, older people who complain the loudest. The ones who have moved into the country from London and don't know a cow from a sheep. They mostly couldn't care a flying f--k for any local person who cannot afford a house in their idyllic village. The man who said the new homeowners would not have enough to so and would kick cars was obnoxious.

I think, Sensus, you are missing my point a bit. I think the OP said that some neighbours were for a development and it was needed. That suggests it is known about. That is why I am suggesting that the OP asks the Parish Council and local peope to see what might be "in the air". I live near several villages that have planned and built rural housing to meet exceptional need. The local councils knew about it. Local people had been consulted on the proposals. Not every small development is cloak and dagger if it is for local people.

Some people do welcome development, they just never get heard. The noisy people are one reason why we have a housing shortage and why it takes so long to get anything built. Years of protest and appeals. DH just about to do an appeal with QCs involved. Its silly and silly money being spent. Any guesses where it is?

And I think, BubblesBuddy, that you are missing my point a bit.

Yes, the rumour mill is obviously going, but that doesn't mean that it has any basis whatsoever in formal Planning activity.

As I've said repeatedly, there's certainly no harm in asking the official channels, but do NOT assume that they have an accurate picture of what's going on (or not).

For what it's worth - and I am absolutely NOT saying that it's necessarily the case in this instance - one of our standard tactics used to be to wind people up about affordable housing (the generally perceived views from the well-heeled older NIMBY's is that such housing will be filled with drug pushers, alcoholics and - God forbid - single mothers, and cause their property values to come crashing down around their ears), so that when we eventually pushed forward with an open market development of nice houses with minimal affordable provision, they were supportive (or at least didn't complain as loudly as they otherwise would have).

Similarly, one of the standard tricks I referred to at Public Consultations is to wind everybody up about affordable housing (and traffic volumes - that's another good one), so that off they go like clockwork mice and submit a raft of invalid and irrelevant objections that then obscure any real issues (so far as the Planning system is concerned, of course, affordable housing is a major benefit, and you need to generate city-centre-like volumes of traffic before the standard methodologies for traffic assessment flag any major problems).

Out of interest, you said your DH works on Planning for developers; what area of the country are you, and who has he worked for? I've worked at a senior level for or with quite a few of the major developers myself (Persimmon, Bellway, Bloor, Miller, Redrow, Hopkins, among others), so we may well have come across each other.

Resurrecting this- sensus would you be still happy to look at the land? A lot has happened since then