Oxfordshire legal victory in garden village net zero case

Rights and climate collective, Rights Community Action, challenged the Government's planning inspector's decision not to require the new homes at Salt Cross Garden Village to be built to net-zero standards.

The judgment in the Salt Cross Garden Village Net Zero case was handed down this morning (February 20).

The ruling from Mrs Justice Lieven rejected the arguments made by Levelling Up minister Michael Gove's legal team which were supported by the village's developer Grosvenor Developments, owned by the Duke of Westminster.

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Salt Cross Garden Village off the A40 near Eynsham would include more than 2,000 new homes, a new science business park and its own facilities, schools and community resources.

West Oxfordshire District Council’s plans for the development were that it be carbon net-zero and 100 per cent 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 stated that the ambitions of the project were too high and ‘prescriptive’, and conflicted with national energy efficiency policy outlined in a 2015 ministerial statement. 

Rights Community Action – a climate collective that specialises in addressing the climate crisis through the planning system and local area plans – called the decision 'baffling' and said it created a 'confusing precedent'.

They said it conflicted with the approach taken by Government planning inspectors in other areas, including in Bath & North East Somerset in 2022 and Cornwall in early 2023, where inspectors considered the ministerial statement to have been overtaken by events.

The Government argued the inspector’s recommendation was not actually a decision that could be challenged and it said Rights Community Action 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 arguments, agreeing that the inspector’s interpretation of national policy didn’t make sense and that Rights Community Action "is an NGO established and operating in precisely" this field and "that is an issue of enormous public concern".

After the hearing in November, before the judgment was handed down, the Secretary of State withdrew the 2015 ministerial statement.

Leigh Day planning law specialist, solicitor Ricardo Gama said: “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.

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"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, leader of sustainability group GreenTEA (Transition Eynsham Area), said: “We were appalled when the Planning Inspectorate rejected the net zero policy, despite overwhelming community support.

"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."

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