It’s All In The Planning!

The pace of movement on issues such as water and nutrient neutrality, a revised National Planning Policy Framework  and implementation of Biodiversity Net Gain is ensuring the complex and under resourced planning system has added pressures.

Planning, Planning, Planning! - View our yearly business roundup here

Despite this Catesby Estates has achieved notable planning consents at Pulborough, Horsham for 170 plots, Hellingly, Wealden for 360 plots and Flitch Green, Uttlesford for 160 plots.  All were achieved at local level with Catesby working closely with local stakeholders and the local authorities. 

A record number of planning applications was submitted this year, and we currently have 4,574 plots currently awaiting determination. 

Land Sale at Flitch Green, Essex Completes

Catesby also concluded the sale of land at Flitch Green to Dandara.  This 160 homes, net zero ready site included 40% affordable housing, office hub and new countryside park.  The Catesby team managed to achieve a local level consent for this non-allocated site and secure a buyer in less than 18 months.

As ever a strong pipeline of unconsented sites is essential to the business, and to that end our land team has been working closely with landowners and land agents to secure 12 new sites totalling a further 2,176 plots.

To this end we have increased our presence in the south with an extension to both our land and planning teams with Tom Powell joining as Senior Land Manager and Ian Humble joining as Associate Planning Director. 

We continue to invest in the team with ongoing training such as conflict resolution aimed at equipping them with further skills for public consultation. 

We once again held our volunteering and teambuilding event which included working at the Forest of Marston Vale which is located close to our Marston Moretaine promotion site.

Looking forward, the experience within the Catesby Senior Management Team will help ensure the business remains resilient to future external pressures. 

We will continually be evolving the planning and community engagement strategies to promote sites through the Local Plan process, seeking allocations and gaining consents at a local level where possible.

A further 870 plots are due to be submitted for outline planning in the coming financial year.  Alongside these are 630 plots across three sites in Sussex, all with outline planning permission ready to bring to the market in the coming months.  Two of which are located in Horsham district and both with water neutrality solutions.

We are optimistic looking forward to the year ahead.

With a proven track record and strong success rate, landowners across the country are encouraged to contact us to find out how we could help you maximise the value of your land.

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