Residential development on gardens in England: Their role in providing sustainable housing supply

Development of garden land has attracted political and media attention in recent years, yet there remained uncertainty over whether the issue was nationally or locally significant. Gardens are not a land use in their own right and have no special status in planning law. This enabled them to be considered, until very recently, as previously developed land according to The Brownfield Guide (English Partnerships, 2006). This allowed garden sites to be developed for new housing, thereby helping some authorities to meet their targets for residential development on brownfield land as monitored through their strategic housing land availability assessment (SHLAA). This paper reports the findings of a survey of local planning authorities carried out in 2009 and focused on planning applications and permissions on garden sites over a five year period ending 31 March 2008. The results reveal that garden development was a significant issue in only certain regional contexts, South East, London and West Midlands, and its actual and potential contribution to the local housing stock was variable. Where other forms of brownfield land were in short supply, garden sites might be crucial in meeting targets. The paper examines the policy framework underpinning such applications and shows that where local planning authorities had specific policies on the subject in place they were able to reach more robust decisions on garden site planning applications and there was less likelihood of first stage rejection decisions being overturned on appeal.