Ten of the biggest stories from the past week, including news that plans for a 1,210-home mixed-use scheme on a site allocated for development in a Devon council's adopted local plan have been refused, against the advice of planners who said consent for the site was a "high priority in maintaining housing delivery and a suitable level of housing land supply".



Teignbridge District Council refused a hybrid application for the homes, alongside a school, up to 12,650 square metres of employment floorspace, care homes, community facilities, a local centre, open space and associated infrastructure on land at Wolborough Barton. More.

A government-commissioned review into planning appeal inquiry timescales concluded that the average duration of the process could be "slashed" by more than half from 47 weeks to around 26 weeks. More.

A Cambridgeshire council has blasted a planning inspector over her handling of the examination of its local plan as it moved to withdraw the document from the process, claiming that her recommended changes would render the plan "unrecognisable" from the submission draft. More. 

Campaigners scored a High Court victory against a council's decision not to designate playing fields in west London as a local green space, after a judge ruled that the authority had carried out a "plainly inadequate" and "manifestly unfair" public consultation on the matter. More.

The government announced allocations totalling £9 million for 21 large-scale housing developments across England. More.

Funding deals totalling almost £250 million were also announced by the government in a bid to boost a series of planned housing projects in Cumbria, Devon, Hertfordshire and London that it claims could deliver 25,000 new homes. More.

Councils in Oxfordshire have identified a series of "spatial options", including development of new settlements and intensification of existing centres, for their first county-wide joint plan, which aims to deliver 100,000 new homes by 2031. More.

The key landowner at Old Oak Common described the 25,500-home regeneration plans for the west London site as "unviable, unaffordable and undeliverable" and accused the mayoral delivery body of a "cock-up", sparking a row with Sadiq Khan. More.

A High Court judge backed an inspector's decision to grant permission at appeal for 350 new homes on open countryside in Gloucestershire, dismissing a council's 'prematurity' argument that the scheme would pre-empt its emerging joint local plan. More.

Chief secretary to the Treasury Liz Truss has called for the Tory party to tackle "rigid" planning rules and to "to take on those who don't want a house built in the field next to them". More.

Source: Planning Resource