Developers have won permission to build 230 homes after Braintree District Council was unable to demonstrate it has allocated enough land to cater for more than five years worth of housing.

The planning inspector’s decision to allow the appeal grants outline application for Bellway’s plans on land northeast of Rectory Lane in Rivenhall – initially refused by the district council in early 2022.

Braintree District Council did not defend the appeal on the basis it could only demonstrate a 4.86-year supply of housing land, as opposed to the 5.1 years that it believed it could demonstrate at the time of refusing the planning application.

The site is not in the Braintree local plan and was rejected from being included several times when the local plan was being drawn up. Together with Phase 3, the development will double the number of houses in Rivenhall parish.

Councillor James Abbott said: “Developers are playing on the housing land supply figure, a very complex calculation where councils need to be above the five-year supply threshold.

“Braintree District Council is currently just under five years despite having a new local plan with many large and medium-sized housing sites allocated for building up to the year 2033.

“In my view, as someone involved in planning since the 1980s, currently the system is failing local communities, is undemocratic and is far too much tilted towards volume developers who play the system."

The decision issued last month does not mean that Bellway can start on the site straight away – they still need to submit a detailed reserved matters application.

The inspector said: “In this case, the council cannot demonstrate a five-year supply of housing land and the application of policies that protect areas or assets of particular importance do not provide a clear reason for dismissing the appeal.”

He added that as such the appeal should be allowed unless any adverse impacts of doing so would significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits.