Buying a home in the countryside? Don’t bury your head in the sand about UK planning reforms
The words “planning reform” — like “tax return” or “car insurance” — can tempt those not directly involved to glaze over. Currently, however, for those living in or intending to move to the British countryside, a head-in-the-sand attitude would not be a wise reaction. The government’s recent alterations to legislation around what can be built, and where, and new legislation related to sustainable infrastructure has the potential to cause a rural revolution: or, as Duncan Hartley, director of planning at consultancy Rural Solutions, puts it, it’s: “a seismic policy change, a 9.5 out of 10 on the Richter scale”.
The main thrust of the government’s plans to reach the ambitious goal of delivering 1.5mn new homes — homes the UK sorely needs — by 2029 saw it introduce a revised National Planning Policy Framework in December last year. The intention is to get local authorities to adjust their existing housing targets — in some instances doubling or tripling current projected numbers — and examine the boundaries of the greenbelt in their area to ensure there are sufficient sites available on which to build.
One of the most dramatic changes is the introduction of the “grey belt”, the new planning concept intended to make it easier to build within the greenbelt by allowing construction on “previously developed land” and any other stretches that do “not strongly contribute” to the purposes of the greenbelt — specifically, its aim to curtail “the unrestricted sprawl of large built-up areas”, to prevent “neighbouring towns merging into one another” and to preserve “the setting and special character of historic towns”.
Alongside this, the new framework retains the requirement that “significant weight” should be given to proposals that meet climate objectives — and the government is using central levers to fast forward its net-zero targets. These are already having landscape-altering implications.
While the broad effects are only just coming into view, what could it mean for current residents and those contemplating a move to the country?
“While it looks unlikely that there will be open season in the open countryside,” says Charlie Ellingworth, co-founder of property search agents Property Vision, “anywhere on the outskirts of a village or town [has the potential to be] fair game.”
Hartley sees the new legislation as a necessary step, but acknowledges that some homeowners will undoubtedly be negatively affected: “The five purposes of greenbelt have not changed, but what has changed is how they are assessed.” He highlights one significant change: previously councils considered villages to be “large built-up areas”, and were thus protected from “sprawl” — “but under the new legislation, villages have been specifically excluded from the definition”.
In what is now an uncertain landscape, those looking for rural tranquillity will have to take particular care when deciding where to buy. The most secure locations for uninterrupted greenery and unspoilt starry nights will be the UK’s 15 National Parks, which remain protected in the new framework. But, according to research carried out by estate agents Savills, buyers of homes in national parks already pay a 51 per cent premium above their county averages — in the Lake District and the New Forest it’s more than a 100 per cent premium. This is only likely to rise.
Elsewhere, protection is more limited and even National Landscapes (formerly known as Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty) will have their vulnerabilities. The National Landscapes Association commented that the proposed reforms are “likely to result in significant harm to the natural beauty” of these areas, unless development is delivered in a considered way.
Due diligence, to take into account the potential for development, is intensifying and becoming more complex. Where buyers might otherwise have confined their professional assistance to a solicitor and a surveyor, additional expertise is increasingly being sought, such as from buying agents, who are sent out on a reconnaissance mission.
“We prepare a report that takes into account an area within a 15-mile radius of the property,” says Mark Lawson, partner at The Buying Solution, who specialises in helping clients buy country houses, farms and estates at the top of the market. Detailed research of the local area is intended to ensure that a buyer’s “future enjoyment” remains unmarred by disputes over footpaths and wider planning matters. A particularly close watch is kept on new proposals. “We drive around the area and take into account whether an old industrial building or former school is likely to become a focus of development,” says Lawson.
He and his colleagues are busily revisiting previously rejected planning applications to assess whether they may rise again under the new legislation. And — so there are no “nasty surprises” — they often prepare computer-generated images of potential infrastructure hazards. “In one instance, along the south coast, where there was a proposal for a wind farm, we were able to show the client what would be visible from various points on the land.” In the event, “they realised only the very tips of the turbines could ever be seen”.
Planning consultants are also being called upon earlier in the house-buying process. As a result of the legislation, local authorities are about to action a process known as a Call for Sites, allowing submissions for land which might be considered suitable for development, alerts Hartley.
But he highlights that: “Planning is one of the most accessible local government services. You can lodge your email address with the council to be consulted about your area’s Local Plan and informed about the Call for Sites, and any new planning applications.”
For many owners and buyers, however, Hartley also sees opportunities. “Though the focus in the news has been on house building, the policy will apply to all forms of development, [potentially] presenting scope for home offices and leisure facilities,” he says. So now could be the moment to submit a proposal for a redundant outbuilding or offlying paddock.
Other potential beneficiaries are those with aspirations to build their own rural architectural masterpiece, permitted under Paragraph 84 of the National Planning Policy Framework, which allows for the construction of an “isolated home” of “exceptional quality”. “In the past, we always told clients who wanted to build a significant new house to steer well clear of greenbelt,” says Hartley. “Now we’re reviewing sites,” he says: since the framework was revised, Rural Solutions has helped clients gain permission to redevelop two detached properties in an areas of greenbelt in Surrey now designated grey belt.
Ellingworth, meanwhile, notes rising concern in rural communities about the impact of proposals introduced to meet climate objectives. In 2024, renewable technologies represented just over 50 per cent of UK electricity production, and Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, sees solar energy as playing a pivotal role. As part of a “clean power sprint” to 2030, he is keen to triple supply from its current level of less than five per cent. He is also changing the planning approval process for wind turbines, putting decision making for large-scale developments in the hands of the government, rather than local councils.
“The spread of onshore wind, solar farms and the pylons that will be transporting sustainable electricity across the countryside [often seems] random and unpredictable,” Ellingworth cautions. “Wind farms need hills and hills are very visible and there is not much you can do to sugar the pill of a pylon.”
Or, indeed, the glare of a solar farm, as is being felt by those fighting the Lime Down Solar Park, a proposed 2000-acre solar farm in Wiltshire (that would also encompass part of the Duke of Beaufort’s Badminton estate in Gloucestershire), which is designed to generate enough clean, affordable electricity to power around 115,000 homes.
More than 80 per cent of locals who replied to an initial consultation about the farm objected to the impact it would have on the landscape and the potential damage it would cause to biodiversity, drainage and flooding, heritage and transport, among other issues. Though Stop Lime Down signs litter the nearby roads, the project — which has recently completed a second phase of consultation — is classified as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project. Permission to go ahead will ultimately lie with the secretary of state, who will weigh up national and local concerns.
More such schemes are on the cards. According to a recent report by Property Vision, farmers across the country are receiving approaches from green energy companies offering up to £1,000 per acre per year, a figure that compares nicely to the £800 or so gross revenue provided by an acre of wheat.
According to pressure group Stop Lime Down, Wiltshire already has 54 solar farms either in operation or under construction.
Keeping up to speed with proposals is keeping buyers on their toes. It takes awareness and smarts but, reassures Hartley, things don’t happen overnight. He adds: “Planning consent has always required a complex balancing act of interests and, as well as the National Planning Policy Framework, applications will be scrutinised through other layers of planning, such as local, neighbourhood and parish plans. Decision-making will certainly become more complex, but the great weight of rural planning is the protection of natural beauty, and this remains solidly in place.”
Liam Bailey, global head of research at estate agents Knight Frank is less complacent. “The government is committed to development. This will include building new housing on [national] landscapes and introducing swaths of solar panels on untouched fields. If you want economic growth it makes sense. If you want to live your dream country lifestyle, less so.”
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