Stratford-on-Avon District Council’s planning lead described the rejection of 75 homes in Stockton as “worrying” as the battle to provide enough housing land continues.

Deputy leader and portfolio holder for planning and economic development Councillor George Cowcher (Lib Dem, Wellesbourne South) twice referenced the case during Monday’s meeting of cabinet where a report on efforts to boost the volume of land for development was discussed.

The planning committee is a panel of councillors that makes the final decision on individual applications. It does not include Cllr Cowcher who has a wider remit, including ensuring that the district is putting forward enough land for new homes.

The council’s planning officers – the employed professionals – recommended saying yes to 75 new homes on farmland to the south of Sycamore Close, Stockton, near Southam, but amid more than 100 objections the committee unanimously said no, citing visual amenity and landscape harm, the loss of high-quality agricultural land and impact on local facilities.

The site of the planned development in Stockton. Credit: www.richborough.co.uk

placeholder image — The site of the planned development in Stockton. Credit: www.richborough.co.uk

That call eroded ongoing work to get the district back to a five-year supply of housing land, a quest instigated by a significant increase to the minimum numbers of new homes the government says the area should accommodate.

Councillors have been warned by officers for some time that unpalatable decisions will be necessary to meet the targets. Failure could risk the council losing control of applications.

The council has set up a housing delivery advisory group. It meets in private to work on ways to get homes delivered as soon as possible on viable plots of land by encouraging developers to get to work and other bodies to accelerate the parts they play.

The council remains 2,927 homes short of target and its report admits that “substantial further progress on both site delivery and the supporting evidence” will be required to solve the supply issue.

The report notes that up to 5,168 homes are in the district’s planning pipeline but with “varying degree of certainty in terms of deliverability” in the next five years

“The next phase of this workstream is to progress the most credible opportunities, improve the evidence for where intervention can make a difference and retain transparent records of sites that cannot presently contribute,” it adds.

Various estimates are offered up but as of last month – October 2026 – the projection was that the work could make up to 2,461 homes deliverable, still shy of the five-year supply target but a significant improvement if delivered.

Cllr Cowcher confirmed when asked on Monday that the 75 homes would come off projections unless the applicant wins an appeal.

“Clearly that is worrying if we are not going to be permitting that,” he said.

“I am afraid that there will be objections to every single application that comes forward. At the end of the day we have to balance up our requirement to have a five-year housing land supply. That is always going to be an issue.”

The impact that work on boosting the supply has on the areas trying to resist unwanted development remains a thorny issue with Councillor Sarah Whalley-Hoggins (Reform UK, Brailes & Compton) concerned by the limited weight heritage policies are given in making decisions.

Cllr Cowcher said he shared those worries, citing the loss of a planning appeal at Bordon Hill “where not even the setting of Anne Hathaway’s cottage was considered a significant reason for refusal there”.

“The danger we are running is that the more that goes to appeal, the less control we have,” he said.

“As always in planning, we are not in total control of our destiny. That is why it is so important to get the South Warwickshire Local Plan through which has very strong policies on protection of heritage.”

He also referenced the conflict between having to supply land that developers are less and less willing to build on due to a housing market downturn – the council’s data shows the number of new homes built each year has dropped from 1,573 to 626 in the past four years.

Leader Councillor Susan Juned (Lib Dem, Alcester East) quoted research from planning journals showing 153 councils do not have a five-year housing land supply, 29 of which have less than two years of supply.

“It just shows the scale of the changes to the updated housing need numbers that the government has given us,” she said.