Making the most of rural development options

Several rural development opportunities exist for landowners – many have been detailed and discussed publicly and there are an abundance of success stories.

Brown&Co is utilising planning policy to help landowners and developers transform under-used agricultural and edge of settlement sites and deliver sought-after and high performing rural housing.

A business at the forefront of this is Devlin Developments, headed by Lee Devlin, who has a fantastic reputation for applying high quality design to sites with redundant farm buildings and rural edge of settlement sites, predominately in the East of England.

It is not only these sites that have benefited from his approach but neighbouring properties too as by improving the landscape, he makes places nicer areas to live in and, consequently, the value of the surrounding houses is often enhanced.

Rather than clusters of redundant and often dilapidated buildings, these sites are now smart and vibrant spaces for people to live.

Site selection and navigating the planning system have been key in Devlin Developments’ success. Brown&Co has been assisting the company for six years, delivering 14 successful approvals and with more in the pipeline.

This collaboration has resulted in the development in Norfolk of a new set of house types on an edge of settlement site, in Attleborough, and the re-imagining of a redundant farmyard in Baconsthorpe. The schemes are a traditional take on Norfolk homes but with contemporary details and are all A-rated.

The result has been current and modern homes that exude good design and craftsmanship and provide much-needed rural housing stock. Mr Devlin said that for some of the 60 or so projects that he has delivered, Brown&Co has identified plots suitable for that purpose, coordinated purchases, provided development advice and secured planning permissions.

The entire process, providing valuable consultancy advice from start to finish, has allowed better planning consents to be secured than where these services are all secured separately.

Brown&Co’s knowledge of the planning system has been vital in this process.

The firm’s consultants have helped Devlin Developments utilise Class Q, a permitted development right that allows agricultural buildings to be converted to residential use once it has gone through the prior approval process. In 2018, the regulations were amended to allow for up to five dwellings and up to 865sq m floor space to be converted.

Understanding this process is crucial to succeeding as a significant number of applications are refused.

Mr Devlin said that being able to utilise Brown&Co’s knowledge and connections with the relevant planning authority had been a very important route in navigating the twists and turns in legislation and succeeding in securing planning consent that are notoriously far from straightforward.

Brown&Co’s design team has also provided expert advice on integrating energy-efficient technologies that create comfortable, efficient and environmentally-friendly homes.

"We have put our faith in Brown&Co and they have delivered for us.

We have been able to achieve energy performance A ratings for all our homes which makes our properties very attractive to buyers."

Mr Devlin

The business has a long list of buyers who want one of their next developments.

For more information, contact our Architecture & Planning team here.