| Fawcett Properties Ltd v Buckinghamshire CC | |
| Court: | House of Lords |
| Date Decided: | 26 Oct 1960 |
| Full Name: | Fawcett Properties Ltd v Buckinghamshire County Council |
| Citations: | [1960] 3 WLR 831 [1960] 3 All ER 503 59 LGR 69 HL(E) [1961] AC 636 |
| Prior Actions: | Chancery Division of High Court before Mr Justice Roxburgh Court of Appeal |
| Keywords: | Planning, certainty |
Fawcett Properties Ltd v Buckingham County Council [1960] has become a leading case in planning law and concerned agricultural conditions of use. It is also relevant for its tests on finding certainty versus uncertainty of policy, contract or other concepts rendering them void. It has been applied in English trusts law which has long held a cy-près doctrine, expressed in pre 1649-Law French meaning "there nearly" that is perfecting concepts or a purpose for funds which is tantamount to a legitimate interest or concern and intended to take clear effect.
The law of planning permissions, integral to urban planning, sits at the crossroads of land law and public law. Specifically it combines the laws enabling and interpreting development and commercial interests with public interest laws such as in social welfare, food resource sustainability, quality/aesthetic consistency of housing and pollution mitigation. The case stressed the legitimate goal of protection of the Metropolitan Green Belt in primary legislation and similar restrictions crop up in rural zoned land use areas outside of Local Plan development zones, in UK planning practical policy. The case upheld the ability of local planning authorities (LPAs) to impose restrictions which will only allow development in sensitive parts of their areas where meeting a pressing agricultural need to house the family of an agricultural/forestry worker, provided it has balanced such policies against those enabling developments to, if fully developed, meet the local housing needs assessment. The cases recognises that greenfield sites are cheaper to develop and have more aesthetic qualities than many brownfield (urban) sites however many LPAs will choose to make any development on such land a narrow exception not a norm.
Buckingham County Council gave permission for cottages to be built in an urban green belt, on the condition that ‘occupation of the houses shall be limited to persons whose employment.... is... in agriculture... or in forestry or in an industry mainly dependent upon agriculture’, as defined by the Town and Country Planning Act 1947 section 119. Fawcett Properties Ltd argued this condition was void.
The House of Lords held that the condition was valid because it followed the policy of keeping the green belt for agricultural population, similarly defined in the Housing Act 1936 section 115. The definition could not, without overwhelming evidence, be held void for uncertainty.
In the course of his judgment, Lord Denning reasoned:[1]