Campaigners and local community triumph over Government’s attempt to water down net zero housing
Victory for West Oxfordshire Council’s net zero plans for one of the most progressive housing developments in UK
London, 20 February 2024: Today, rights and climate collective, Rights Community Action, local Oxfordshire campaigners and West Oxfordshire Council welcomed the judgment in the Salt Cross Garden Village Net Zero case, which was handed down at 10.30 am this morning.
The ruling from Mrs Justice Lieven, roundly rejects the arguments made by the Michael Gove’s - Levelling Up Minister – legal team; arguments which were also supported by Grosvenor Developments.
Salt Cross Garden Village was set to be a development in West Oxfordshire, which would include more than 2,000 new homes, a new science business park and its own facilities, schools, community resources and employment opportunities. West Oxfordshire District Council’s plans for the development were that it be carbon net-zero and 100% powered by on-site renewables. It listed specifications for building fabric and energy efficiency, as well as measures to address risks of overheating in the village.
However in a report in March 2023, planning inspectors scuppered the project by – bafflingly - stating that the ambitions of the project were too high and ‘prescriptive’, and conflicted with national energy efficiency policy, as outlined in a 2015 ministerial statement. This confusing precedent conflicted with the approach taken by Government planning inspectors in other local areas, including in Bath & North East Somerset in 2022 and Cornwall in early 2023. In both these areas, inspectors considered the ministerial statement to have been overtaken by events.
The Government made a number of desperate arguments, including:
The inspector’s recommendation was not actually a decision that could be challenged - despite the recommendation having the effect of preventing the development from going ahead unless the ‘recommendations’ were accepted.
Rights Community Action – a climate collective that specialises in addressing the climate crisis through the planning system and local area plans – had no ‘legitimate concern’ or ‘sufficient interest’ to bring a legal challenge about the planning process in this local development.
Mrs Justice Lieven dismissed both these arguments, agreeing that the inspector’s interpretation of national policy didn’t make sense:
"... the Inspectors’ interpretation neither makes sense on the words, seen in their present context, or of the mischief to which it was applying. To interpret the WMS so as to prevent or restrict the ability of the LPA to set a standard higher than Level 4 is plainly wrong in the light of subsequent events. For this reason, the Inspectors erred in law in their approach by finding that Policy 2 of the AAP was inconsistent with the WMS." (para 76)
"...the Inspectors error in respect of the WMS infected the entirety of their analysis. If they had properly understood and applied national policy, then they might well have reached a different set of conclusions on Policy 2, whether in part or on its entirety." (para 95)
and that Rights Community Action ‘…is an NGO established and operating in precisely the field of this AAP and this challenge, namely the role of LPA development plan making and climate change. That is an issue of enormous public concern, and one where [RCA] has particular knowledge and interest.’ (para 60)
Rights Community Action’s High Court legal challenge, which the organisation crowdfunded to take, was heard in a two day rolled-up hearing in November 2023, and attended by local campaigners in addition to the climate collective. The developers of Salt Cross Garden Village, Grosvenor Developments – owned by one of the UK’s richest men, the Duke of Westminster – actively opposed the Council’s net zero policy during the 2021 examination of the plan, despite claiming it wanted to deliver a ‘net zero enabled scheme’ in its Salt Cross application in July 2020. Grosvenor was an interested party in the challenge, supporting the Government’s position. After the hearing in November, before the judgment was handed down, the Secretary of State withdrew the 2015 ministerial statement.
Director of Rights Community Action, Dr Naomi Luhde-Thompson, said:
“This case was David v Goliath; on one side, a community and local council fighting for the most ambitious net zero standards for a new local area. On the other, a developer seemingly concerned only about profit, and a lame-duck Government determined to undermine local democracy and local voices.”
“As an organisation, we truly understand that the most practical and effective way forward for delivering net zero is through making every local development decision matter on climate change. We want to support local community and local council visions for net zero.”
“This judgment affirms what we already know needs to happen across the country. Local action from communities and local councils, developing and adopting zero-carbon plans, needs Government support – not nonsensical barriers, which run contrary to everything that needs to happen now, to achieve climate safety and security for us all.”
Leigh Day planning law specialist, solicitor Ricardo Gama said:
“The judge has found that the government’s planning inspectors were wrong to hold that national planning policy prevented local authorities from setting climate-compatible energy efficiency requirements for new buildings.”
“The case is a frustrating example of a local authority trying to take ambitious action on climate change and being hamstrung by confusion in central government and so it’s welcome that the judge has clarified the legal position. The government updated its policy in between the High Court hearing and the judgment and the lawfulness of that policy is also being examined by our client.”
Sarah Couch leads the energy group of GreenTEA (Transition Eynsham Area), a sustainability group which has been campaigning hard for the highest environmental standards at the garden village and for carbon reduction more widely.
“We were appalled when the Planning Inspectorate rejected the net zero policy, despite overwhelming community support. As the impacts of climate change get ever starker, we need solutions more urgently than ever. A home built to net zero standards would be resource efficient and could generate its own clean energy; it would be cheaper to run. So it makes no sense to prevent councils and their communities from expecting homes fit for the future."
"If the Inspector’s recommendation were adopted, we could have the ridiculous situation of a large showpiece development that is not required to produce its own annual energy demand but with Europe’s largest groundmount solar farm on more farmland right up to its boundary (the proposed Botley West solar farm). “
● ENDS -
Notes for editors
Rights Community Action is a coalition of campaigners, lawyers, planners, facilitators, writers and scientists, united by a shared commitment to tackle the Climate Emergency – with people and for people, and the environment.
Dr Naomi Luhde-Thompson, Director of Rights Community Action is a creative and dedicated change-maker, who works to empower communities. She heads up a programme for training communities on their right to be involved in environmental decision-making and is also Senior Lecturer at Oxford Brookes University, teaching on Sustainable Futures. She has led transformative campaigns on land use planning to prevent fossil fuel extraction and on legislative change to enshrine procedural rights and climate protections at UK level.
Alex Goodman KC and Alex Shattock acted for Rights Community Action, instructed by Ricardo Gama and Klara Ipek at Leigh Day.
The Written Ministerial Statement that the claim centred around was recently discussed in Channel 4’s The Great Climate Fight.
