When the plan lapses, developers pick the fields.
Uttlesford
What we can show
Without a five-year housing land supply, the 'tilted balance' returns until a plan is adopted. Felsted Parish Council recorded that position for Uttlesford in September 2024.
How sprawl adds to this
A lapsed plan is an open season on fields. Each appeal is a site. Together they are a dispersal strategy nobody voted for.
What a larger settlement can do
That pressure eases only if the regional plan cuts district targets. Until it does, a lapsed five-year supply still lets developers pick the fields. A larger planned settlement is the alternative map, not an automatic fix.
The pattern is fewer, larger places with infrastructure first, not another estate on the edge of every village.
Planning tracker · How to stop urban sprawl · The numbers · All cumulative harms · Corrections
We can stop this
We want building concentrated in fewer, larger places with schools, health, water and transport built in — not another estate on the edge of every village.
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