Fine the tardy developers

Dear Sir,

The increasing discrepancy between houses with planning permission and those built is of major concern.

It makes a mockery of councils' efforts to ensure that the most suitable land is used for development and a 5-year supply is achieved.

It also makes it very challenging for campaigners to use evidence to oppose unwanted planning applications.

While appreciating that property developers operate according to market mechanisms, it should be possible to make this land banking less of an issue.

One possibility is penalising firms that gain planning permission and then do not build the requisite number of houses within a specified period.

If they were fined or the permission was re-allocated to another construction company, this might motivate them to at least moderate their original applications.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Peter Hirst

Middlewich