Land Ownership

planning_officer

And the sad thing is that the selling off of these plots of land degrades the countryside - the owners make massive profits, planning permission is highly unlikely to be granted for any of them (otherwise they'd be in the landbank of a big developer, especially in the SE!), and at the same time the land is not used for its lawful use, i,e, agriculture, and it is neglected and becomes an eyesore.

The DTI raided one of these companies at the Ideal Home Show last year as they were involved in misleading advertising - although the majoprity just stay on the right side of legal and the very small print states the land has no planning permission.

The old "more homes needed in the SE... Green Belt land to be built on" argument is the tried and tested method of advertising... although the fact is that if areas are released from the GB for building (as some undoubtedly are), this strengthens GB policy elsewhere - and the locations for these parcels of land are very rarely (if ever) in prime locations - usually on the periphery of villages, in AONBs and in completely unsustainable locations...

That's my rant over... these companies really wind me up... especially as I've dealt with several of them as a planning enforcement officer!

bostin

one other thing to hand from a planners point of view..... multiple land ownership issues on sites such as this also count against it ever being developed. Basically stay away, well away!

Doozergirl

I had a very interesting conversation with someone puporting to be a 'customer' of one of these companies on here a few weeks back.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=264421

It would be worth noting that Planning Permission has never been granted for a development of this kind!

ManAtHome

TH's latest one here http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/columnists/article.html?in_page_id=19&in_article_id=419612&in_author_id=5 - he's reported many others, but it's always the same scam - buy a field then flog it for 100 times more than you paid (using the "when" word rather than the "if" word of course)..

TurnaroundSue

planning_officer wrote: »

And the sad thing is that the selling off of these plots of land degrades the countryside - the owners make massive profits, planning permission is highly unlikely to be granted for any of them (otherwise they'd be in the landbank of a big developer, especially in the SE!), and at the same time the land is not used for its lawful use, i,e, agriculture, and it is neglected and becomes an eyesore.

The DTI raided one of these companies at the Ideal Home Show last year as they were involved in misleading advertising - although the majoprity just stay on the right side of legal and the very small print states the land has no planning permission.

The old "more homes needed in the SE... Green Belt land to be built on" argument is the tried and tested method of advertising... although the fact is that if areas are released from the GB for building (as some undoubtedly are), this strengthens GB policy elsewhere - and the locations for these parcels of land are very rarely (if ever) in prime locations - usually on the periphery of villages, in AONBs and in completely unsustainable locations...

That's my rant over... these companies really wind me up... especially as I've dealt with several of them as a planning enforcement officer!

Is this different then? This company mentions land banking and so not sure whether I have confused you all or not ..... think I might have confused myself

Doozergirl

TurnaroundSue wrote: »

Is this different then? This company mentions land banking and so not sure whether I have confused you all or not ..... think I might have confused myself

I think it is misleading. Landbanking says what it is really. It's what big developers and companies like Tesco do; they buy up land that has the potential to be developed and 'bank' it. They use it over time.

I think you'd really need more than one tiny plot of land for anyone to consider it landbanking. Plus, some of these sites are actually floodplains etc; they really could never be developed - unless you fancied a downstairs swimming pool