Planning, Environment and Property Newsletter - Autumn 2025 Edition
Welcome to our October 2025 edition of the Planning, Environment & Property Newsletter. It has been a busy summer with planning in the mainstream press courtesy of the highly reported Somani Hotels Ltd v Epping Forest DC [2025] EWCA Civ 1134 case considering the contentious issue of asylum hotels. With Epping Forest DC having lodged an application for permission to appeal to the Supreme Court after the Court of Appeal set aside an interim injunction blocking the use of the Bell Hotel in Epping to accommodate asylum seekers, and the Government proposing that it may return to the use of disused army barracks for asylum accommodation; the potential planning issues presented by asylum accommodation seem to be back with renewed attention after the flurry of cases on this issue under the last Government.
We start off this edition with Richard Harwood KC returning to 2020 and considering the continued impact that the Covid lockdowns and restrictions on businesses may have on the commencement of uses and the running of time in planning enforcement. We are also pleased to welcome our new member Matthew Wyard who provides his analysis of Cotham School v Bristol City Council [2025] EWHC 1382 (Ch) and lessons to be learned for schools to ensure that their land is protected from applications seeking to register school playing fields as common land or village greens. On top of this we have articles covering the following:
- Ned Helme considers Green Lane Association Ltd v Central Bedfordshire Council [2025] EWHC 2251 (Admin), the first case looking at the scope of Article 9(3) of the Aarhus convention after the Court of Appeal’s decision in Global Feedback [2025] EWCA Civ 624 which gave a more restricted interpretation of Article 9(3) than had previously been adopted.
- Celia Reynolds covers the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill, devolution, and the potential impacts upon planning and development.
- Daniel Kozelko looks at the decision in Mole Valley DC v Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government [2025] EWHC 2127 (Admin) and whether recent changes to the NPPF 2024 have altered how assessment of development which is ‘not inappropriate’ in the Green Belt is approached.
- Lastly, Jake Thorold addresses R (Caffyn) v Shropshire Council [2025] EWHC 1497 about the environmental effects of a proposed intensive poultry unit and the ramifications for how planning decision-makers should assess “in-combination” environmental impacts in circumstances where multiple intensive livestock units are located in close proximity to one another.
We are also very pleased to see the hard work of the PEP team recognised in the 2026 Legal 500 rankings with our new and improved “Tier 2” planning ranking as a set. We know how much hard work goes into this from our members and clerks.
We do hope you enjoy this edition of the PEP newsletter and have a productive Michaelmas term.
