Residents are sometimes accused of being “NIMBYs” when it comes to building new homes - but can the term be applied to some councils too?

New data has revealed which local authorities in Kent approved the fewest (and the most) major housing applications last year.

In the Ashford borough half of big developments were snubbed, whereas in the Canterbury district 100% were given the green light.

But council bosses have pushed back at being branded NIMBYs - people who declare “Not In My Back Yard” - as they are meeting government housing targets.

Last month, The Times published figures showing which local authorities in 2023 approved the fewest applications for “major” developments - defined as plans for more than 10 homes or covering more than one hectare.

Using government data, the newspaper produced a list of the “NIMBYest” councils in England. Ashford Borough Council (ABC) languishes in 12th, approving only six of the 12 it received in 2023.

The local authority was a Tory stronghold for more than 20 years until last May’s election, after which a minority coalition of the Ashford Independents and the Greens took over.

On the Ashford Independents’ website they declare openly their “opposition to large or sensitive building developments on greenfield sites, and to urban extensions where there is no need for them and there is strong opposition from residents”.

However, Cllr Linda Harman (Ash Ind), the cabinet member responsible for planning, and a member of the planning committee, insists they are “far from being NIMBYs”.

“The current administration are supportive of development that delivers the housing desperately needed by the residents of our borough,” she told KentOnline.

“Our politically neutral planning committee takes a balanced view on all applications and, along with our officers, has an excellent record on subsequent appeals, with the majority being dismissed - as in the decision upheld - by the planning inspectorate.

“We are committed to making the right planning decisions and to delivering the affordable homes that are needed to relieve the homelessness crisis being experienced, not only in our local area but across the country.”

She also suggested the figures could be misleading.

“As with any data, it is open to interpretation and provides no context to explain the background,” Cllr Harman said.

“The description ‘major application’ means sites with more than 10 dwellings or over one hectare in size - which covers a whole range of different residential development and could even be a single property.

“Whilst one council might aim to deliver fewer, larger sites, another could deliver more, smaller sites, thus appearing, through this data, to issue more approvals.”

An example of a major application snubbed by ABC last year was the Possingham Farm development of 665 homes - of which 30% were set to be affordable - next to Chilmington Green, where 5,750 homes are in the works.

"The whole concept of a YIMBY or NIMBY council is an utter nonsense…”

At the meeting during which it was refused, ward Cllr Jessamy Blanford (Con) said: “I find it impossible to find anything positive to say about this application.

“The site is not in the Ashford Local Plan - it is agricultural land meant to be maintained as a buffer between Chilmington Green and the open countryside.”

Further analysis of the government data reveals Maidstone Borough Council (MBC) fared little better in 2023, approving only 53% of major housing applications.

Among the plans the then-Tory minority rejected was an outline application for 112 homes outside the Sutton Road HQ of Kent Police, more than three years after it had been submitted.

But an MBC spokesperson this week said that a better way to judge a council’s performance on new homes is whether it is hitting the government’s Housing Delivery Test targets.

Figures from the Department for Levelling Up show that between 2019 and 2022, 4,359 new homes were built in the Maidstone borough, 2,080 more than required.

Similarly in the Ashford borough, the council’s target of 2,292 new homes for this period was exceeded, with 2,461 built in total.

The MBC spokesperson also pointed out that fewer large developments are likely to be approved the longer it has been since a council’s Local Plan - its blueprint for housing projects - has been signed off. 2023 was the last year for which Maidstone’s Local Plan, rubber-stamped in 2017, was in force - before being superseded by a new one produced this year.

An MBC spokesperson said: “Earlier in a plan period, major applications tend to come forward on allocated sites and be approved, and once these have washed through the system, there will just be relatively small volumes of major applications on unallocated sites, which potentially are less likely to accord with the broader Local Plan policies and so be refused.

“The correct measure of whether a planning service is approving enough new homes is the Housing Delivery Test performance and the award of New Homes Bonus monies, where Maidstone excels on both fronts.”

At the other end of the spectrum, Canterbury City Council (CCC) is one of 15 “YIMBY” councils in England which approved 100% of the major housing applications it received last year.

In February 2023, CCC approved plans for 220 homes in Seasalter, despite former councillor Val Kenny’s (Lab) claims the town was becoming the “wild west” for developers.

In December the authority greenlit another 220, alongside a park and ride site, at Benacre View off the Old Thanet Way in Whitstable.

The scheme had received 75 letters of objection, and resident Peter Slaughter told the meeting that the area “needs statutory protection, not trashing with more urban development.”

Despite this, it was approved with eight votes in favour, three abstentions and one against.

A city council spokesman this week questioned whether local authorities should be considered pro- or anti-development at all.

"The whole concept of a YIMBY or NIMBY council is an utter nonsense as all local planning authorities have to follow planning law to the letter and members of the planning committee act in a quasi-judicial role,” the spokesman said.

"On top of that, any decision to say no to a planning application is subject to appeal to a government-appointed planning inspector who can overturn it.

"What these figures do not show is how many homes each major application represents."

The only other Kent authority which approved 100% of large housing applications was the Ebbsfleet Development Corporation.

The corporation isn’t a council, but it was created in 2015 to act as the planning authority for the new “garden city” at Ebbsfleet, near Dartford.

You can read more of our Spotlight on Housing features here.

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