The Batch: Why the Battle Is Not Over

The mounting challenges facing development of 140 homes on Green Belt land south of Hencliffe Way

Planning Application P23/01330/O | April 2026

The appeal for outline planning permission to build up to 140 homes on The Batch — the 20-acre site south of Hencliffe Way and west of Castle Farm Road in Hanham — was allowed

by Planning Inspector Matthew Nunn in July 2025. Hanham District Green Belt

Conservation Society, along with South Gloucestershire Council, opposed the appeal

vigorously. More than 1,500 local residents submitted objections. Despite this, the Inspector

granted permission, citing the Government’s newly introduced “Grey Belt” concept and a

shortfall in South Gloucestershire’s five-year housing land supply.

But an appeal decision is only the beginning. Between a planning permission and 140

completed homes there lies a formidable gauntlet of practical, financial, and physical

obstacles. This bulletin examines why, even with permission in hand, Ashfield Land and

Redrow Homes face a genuinely difficult path ahead — and why the community should

remain alert, engaged, and informed as the reserved matters process unfolds.

A Turbulent Housing Market

Redrow Homes was acquired by Barratt Developments in 2024 to form Barratt Redrow, now

the UK’s largest housebuilder. The timing of that merger coincided with, and in part reflected, one of the most difficult trading environments for residential developers in over a decade.

The national picture is stark. Private housing starts have more than halved, and across

England, total completions in the first half of 2025 fell by nearly 13% compared to the same

period a year earlier. The Government’s ambition of 1.5 million new homes by the end of this

parliament is already well off-pace, with only around 208,600 net additional dwellings

delivered in England in 2024–25 — a 6% decline from the previous year.

For commercial housebuilders, the crux of the problem is demand. When sales slow,

developers cannot sell homes “off plan” — the critical mechanism that generates advance

cash flow and justifies construction lending. With agreed sales in negative territory for much

of 2024 and into 2025, and new buyer enquiries running at deeply negative levels, projects

across the country have been shelved, scaled back, or simply left to stall. Unsold stock ties

up capital; lenders tighten credit on schemes without pre-sales. The result is a vicious cycle

that further depresses housing output.

Mortgage affordability remains the fundamental drag. Despite modest reductions in the Bank of England base rate through 2025, two-year fixed-rate mortgages are still hovering around 4.8–5.2%, and five-year deals around 4.5%. For buyers looking at new-build homes in the Bristol and South Gloucestershire commuter belt, where property prices remain elevated, these rates represent a very significant barrier.

"Housing completions are likely to fall in Q4 2025 and see a much slower start in 2026 than anticipated. — RSM UK"

Housing Tracker, November 2025

All of this bears directly on The Batch. Redrow’s appetite to commit capital to a challenging

greenfield site on former Green Belt land, with a single-access road created by demolishing

a neighbour’s home, will be tempered by the same commercial pressures that have caused

housebuilders to slash starts across the country. Securing construction finance for a scheme

with known ground-condition risks, community opposition, and uncertain sales rates will not

be straightforward.

The Pressure of Construction Costs

Even before a single foundation is dug at The Batch, the cost environment facing any

developer is deeply challenging. Tender price inflation for residential buildings is forecast at

2–4% for 2025, and the cumulative increases since 2020 have left material and labour costs

at historically high levels. Global supply chains have partially stabilised, but prices have not

retreated.

The construction industry faces a shortage of over 140,000 workers, spanning both skilled

trades and professional services. Material shortages are affecting nearly four in five

construction firms — the highest proportion ever recorded in industry surveys. For a site like

The Batch, which will require substantial groundworks (as discussed below), specialist

labour and plant will be essential, commanding a significant premium.

The Building Safety Act continues to impose additional regulatory costs and delays on new

residential schemes. Nationally, the Building Safety Regulator created significant backlogs

throughout 2025, holding up developments across the country. While reforms announced

late in 2025 are beginning to take effect, the regulatory landscape adds cost and programme

uncertainty to any scheme of this scale.

When one adds the cost of off-site highway improvements required as a condition of the

Inspector’s decision — including improved crossing points, bus shelter upgrades, tactile

paving, and footway improvements along Castle Farm Road — alongside the on-site

infrastructure required, the financial model for 140 units at The Batch needs to work very

hard to justify itself in the current environment.

The Affordable Housing Obligation: 50% Is Not a Small Ask

Perhaps the most significant financial constraint facing the developers is the affordable

housing requirement attached to the Inspector’s permission. In granting the appeal,

Inspector Nunn specifically noted that the scheme would deliver 50% affordable housing as

part of the “Golden Rules” applicable to Grey Belt sites under the revised National Planning

Policy Framework.

Seventy homes at affordable or social rent levels sounds like a public good — and it is. But

for the developer, 70 affordable units represent 70 homes that generate substantially less

revenue than market-rate sales. Housing associations, who would typically acquire these

units via Section 106 agreements, are themselves under severe financial pressure. In recent

years it has been widely reported that housebuilders have experienced growing difficulty in

finding registered providers willing to buy Section 106 units on agreed terms, with falling

appetite from housing associations adding further pressure to already fragile development

finances.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation, in a report published in April 2026, described the

challenge bluntly: rising construction costs are making development unviable in many areas,

while housing associations face the same pressures limiting their financial capacity to

acquire new homes. If a willing housing association cannot be found to take on the 70

affordable units at The Batch on commercially viable terms, the entire business case for the

development unravels.

The community should scrutinise the reserved matters application carefully for any attempt

to renegotiate the affordable housing proportion downwards on viability grounds — a tactic

used widely by developers in more buoyant markets and, in the current climate, even more

likely to be attempted.

50% affordable housing on a site with challenging ground conditions, a constrained single access, and uncertain sales demand: the numbers must add up before a spade enters the

ground.

Ground Conditions: The Hidden Cost Beneath the Fields

The Batch is not clean agricultural land sitting on solid geology. Local knowledge, long

predating this planning application, has established that parts of the site have been used for

infill over many years. Loose shale is present, and areas of ground instability have been

identified. These are not minor concerns. For a residential development scheme, ground

conditions determine foundation design, and foundation design determines cost.

Where ground is found to be unstable — whether through historical tipping, loose shale, or

inadequate bearing capacity — standard strip or trench-fill foundations are insufficient.

Engineers must design piled foundations, raft foundations, or ground-improvement solutions.

Each of these options adds tens of thousands of pounds per plot in direct construction cost.

Across a 140-unit scheme, adverse ground conditions could add millions to the overall build

cost before a single wall is erected.

The developer will be required, as part of reserved matters submissions, to provide detailed

ground investigation reports covering the entire site. The community, and South

Gloucestershire Council’s planning officers, should ensure these reports are rigorously

independent and peer-reviewed. Any attempt to rely on desk-based assessments, rather

than comprehensive intrusive investigations — including trial pits, boreholes, and laboratory

testing of soils across the full site area — should be challenged.

There is also the question of drainage. The site sits in a topographically sensitive position

within the Avon Valley. Sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) will be required. Where soils

are unstable or of low permeability, the design and construction of drainage infrastructure

becomes substantially more complex and costly.

Nature Is Reclaiming The Batch

For thirteen years, The Batch was farmed for maize — an intensive crop that depletes soil

nutrients, compacts the earth, and leaves precious little room for native flora or fauna. Maize

monoculture is widely regarded by ecologists as among the most harmful land uses in terms

of biodiversity, both in terms of soil health and the absence of habitat diversity.

That changed when the land ceased to be farmed. With the cessation of cultivation, the soil

has begun to breathe again. This spring, as any resident walking the public right of way

through The Batch will attest, the land is carpeted with wildflowers — naturally regenerating

species colonising the disturbed ground and hedgerow margins in a way that has not been

seen there for well over a decade.

This natural regeneration is not merely scenic. It is ecologically significant. The presence of

wildflowers at this scale and variety supports pollinators — bees, hoverflies, butterflies —

and represents the early stages of habitat restoration. The proximity of the site to the ancient

woodland of Hencliff Wood to the south and west amplifies this ecological value

considerably. Ancient woodland does not exist in isolation; it depends on its surrounding

matrix of habitats to support the species within it.

The Inspector’s decision acknowledged a required 10% net gain in biodiversity and noted

the proposed planting of native species, a community orchard, allotments, and public open

space. These commitments must be scrutinised carefully at the reserved matters stage. A

developer-commissioned biodiversity metric should not simply be taken at face value. The

baseline used, the species richness of the current sward, and the measurable long-term

commitments must all be independently verified.

It is deeply ironic that, having been subjected to intensive agricultural use that stripped the

land of ecological value, The Batch is now — precisely at the moment it is being sought for

development — beginning to recover. The community’s task is to ensure that this recovery,

however fragile and recent, is given the weight it deserves in all future planning

considerations.

A field of wildflowers this spring is not just beauty. It is evidence of what The Batch can become — given time, and the chance to breathe.

The Inspector’s Decision: Permission, Not a Promise

It is important that the community understands what the Inspector’s decision does and does

not mean. Outline planning permission has been granted. This means the principle of

residential development has been accepted. It does not mean that 140 homes will be built.

Reserved matters must still be submitted and approved. These cover the detail of layout,

scale, appearance, landscaping and access. Every one of these matters is subject to further

scrutiny. South Gloucestershire Council’s planning officers retain the power to negotiate,

condition, and where appropriate refuse, reserved matters applications that do not comply

with the conditions of the outline consent. The conditions imposed by the Inspector are

extensive and technically demanding.

Among those conditions: a detailed ground investigation report, an updated energy

statement, confirmation of photovoltaic systems, air source heat pumps, detailed biodiversity net gain calculations, and a full range of highway and drainage details. Each of these involves significant cost and regulatory risk. Each is an opportunity for the community to engage, examine, and where necessary object.

Furthermore, outline permissions lapse if reserved matters are not submitted within three

years. In a market as challenging as the current one, with a developer facing the full weight

of costs described above, it is entirely possible that the scheme does not proceed at the

pace — or at all — that the Inspector’s decision might suggest.

Conclusion: Engaged, Informed, and Ready

The Batch has outline planning permission. That is a setback, and the Society acknowledges

it plainly. But it is not the end. The challenges that face this development — a fragile housing market, relentless cost inflation, a 50% affordable housing obligation, potentially unstable ground, and a community and ecology that are both fighting back — are real and significant.

Hanham District Green Belt Conservation Society will continue to monitor every stage of

the reserved matters process. We will engage with South Gloucestershire Council’s planning

officers, scrutinise ground investigation reports, challenge any attempt to water down

affordable housing commitments, and ensure that the natural recovery now underway across

The Batch is given its proper weight in every submission that follows.

We urge all members and supporters to remain subscribed to our updates at

hanhamgreenbelt.com, to walk The Batch this spring and witness the wildflower recovery for

themselves, and to be ready to engage when the reserved matters applications are

submitted. Your voices were heard over 1,500 times during the outline stage. They will

matter just as much in the stages to come.