Planning Update Delays

As a result of the Covid 19 pandemic, the United Kingdom entered a nationwide lockdown on the 23rd of March 2020. This meant that all non-essential services were required to either close or work remotely where possible. This resulted in a number of local authority services being suspended.

With the current easing of the lockdown, we can confirm that our planning team in the UK are engaging with all the relevant authorities to ascertain the progress of all our sites.

We are treating this as a matter of urgency and we hope to have some updates to share with you in the next 2 to 3 weeks.

Shurdington, Gloucestershire, UK

Site Information

Our latest strategic land investment site is located on the eastern edge of Shurdington, a strategically important village in the Tewkesbury district of Gloucestershire. On successful allocation of the site for residential use, it is projected that investors will enjoy a close to 300% return over a 3 - 4 year period. This equates to an approximately 27% annualized return.

The site is located directly adjacent to the south eastern boundary of Shurdington and is approximately 16 acres in size. The site is level and is currently used for grazing and informal equestrian use with access off Badgeworth Lane. Shurdington is a strategically important settlement located between the towns of Gloucester and Cheltenham.

Our Planning Department Comments

• Shurdington falls under the Tewkesbury Borough Council which has a joint Local Plan with the neighbouring Local Planning Authorities of Cheltenham and Gloucester. The combined area has made a provision to provide 35,175 homes over the plan period of which Tewkesbury is to deliver a minimum of 9,899 homes. The current joint Local Plan is scheduled for adoption in summer 2019 but currently has only identified 7 strategic allocations with cross boundary borders which can deliver a total of 10,900 dwellings up to 2031. Our site was not an assessed site as it was not made available for the 2016/2017 Assessment of Land Availability. This means that it has not yet been considered for development.
• The site provides an excellent opportunity to increase further allocation in the area which is already woefully short of its mandated requirement and is experiencing significant growth from the already identified strategic allocations made through the joint plan.
• Given the above and Tewkesbury's deficient land supply and historical difficulties in securing delivery, our site represents an excellent opportunity for promotion for development both in the short term to alleviate the current land deficiencies as well as the medium term for future Local Plan land delivery.

Latest Planning Update

As referenced in the February planning update, Tewkesbury's Local Plan is currently under examination as part of a Joint Local Plan with neighbouring authorities, Cheltenham and Gloucester. Tewkesbury's contribution to the Joint Plan's housing target is 9,899 houses. The commonly held position is that, due to a historical deficit in housing delivery coupled with an over reliance on cross boundary sites, Tewkesbury's Plan is unsound and will be rejected with a requirement for additional sites to be included to rectify the deficit.

Our approach has always been the promotion of our site for inclusion in the Plan as one of these additional sites and all representations made since the commencement of the examination period late last year have been to this end. A critical step towards the success of this approach is the formal identification of our site as an "Omission" site that will form part of the accepted sites for consideration once the Plan's shortfall in housing sites has been confirmed.

Whilst we did not anticipate feedback on this until August this year, we are pleased to confirm that our site has been formerly designated an "Omission" site and included in the list of confirmed alternative sites. This is a significant and important step in the process and we now continue to monitor the balance of the examination process. We expect to have further feedback on this in Q3 this year.