….. “Gladman Developments, which has a turnover of £200million a year, targets councils that cannot demonstrate a five-year housing supply.
It offers to pay all the costs of obtaining planning permission – including the fees for lawyers and experts in the event of any appeal – which can exceed £300,000.
If the attempt to win permission is unsuccessful, the farmer does not have to pay anything. The firm recently took out adverts in the farming press calling for sites of up to 50 acres on the edge of a towns or villages. Its adverts boast: ‘We aim to never lose and have won 90 per cent of our housing planning applications.
‘You pay nothing, win or lose. We only get our percentage after you have sold your land to the highest bidding housebuilder.’
The firm has an astonishing success rate, having secured planning permission for rural sites in 41 out of its last 43 cases, despite substantial local opposition. …
East Devon Watch 