Land Securities Group plc v Scottish Ministers and others

The House of Lords dismissed the appellants' challenge to the Scottish Ministers' approval of an alteration to the Glasgow and the Clyde Valley Joint Structure Plan which supported creation of a new town centre at the Ravenscraig redevelopment site. The primary legal issue was whether the Ministers were required to apply the "sequential approach" in NPPG 8 to that approval. The court held the sequential approach in NPPG 8 is directed at protecting and sustaining existing town centres and presupposes consideration of specific retail or similar developments which could be sited in existing centres; it was not sensibly operable when Ministers were being asked to approve an alteration to a structure plan that proposed the creation of a wholly new town centre as an integral element of a much larger redevelopment. The Lords also held it was not ultra vires to add a not-yet-existing Ravenscraig town centre to the list of town centres in the Structure Plan where the plan clearly envisaged creating such a centre in the plan period.

Background and facts: The former Ravenscraig steelworks site had remained undeveloped after closure. The Glasgow and the Clyde Valley Joint Structure Plan 2000 identified Ravenscraig as a Metropolitan Flagship Initiative. A partnership lodged a large mixed-use planning application including substantial retail floorspace. The Structure Plan was altered by the Joint Committee to add Ravenscraig to the list of town centres and to provide strategic support for creating a new town centre there. The Scottish Ministers approved that Alteration on 26 November 2003. Objectors (including the appellants) contended the Ministers misapplied their policy in NPPG 8 by declining to apply the sequential approach and that adding a non-existent town centre to the plan was ultra vires.

Procedural history: The Joint Committee submitted the First Alteration under section 10(1) of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997. The appellants sought judicial review; a Lord Ordinary (Lord Carloway) reduced the local authority decision to grant planning permission and interdicted issue of permission (29 July 2004). An Extra Division of the Court of Session refused the appeal against Ministers' approval of the Alteration (2005 CSIH 33). The appellants then appealed to the House of Lords.

Nature of relief sought: quashing (reduction) of the Scottish Ministers' decision to approve the Structure Plan Alteration and declaration that the decision was ultra vires for failing to apply the sequential approach in NPPG 8.

Issues framed: (i) Whether the Scottish Ministers were bound to apply the sequential approach in NPPG 8 when deciding whether to approve the Structure Plan Alteration; (ii) whether it was ultra vires to add Ravenscraig, a not-yet-existing town centre, to the list of town centres in the Structure Plan.

Court's reasoning and conclusion: The court analysed NPPG 8 and concluded its sequential approach is primarily designed to protect and sustain existing town centres by ensuring developers and planning authorities give preference to town centre sites before considering edge-of-centre or out-of-centre locations. That approach presupposes assessment of discrete retail or similar developments which might be sited in existing centres and so could not sensibly be applied to an approval of an Alteration that proposed creation of a new integrated town centre as part of a wider redevelopment. Applying the sequential approach in that context would have required disaggregating and effectively destroying the proposed unitary concept of a new town centre. Separately, the court accepted that it was a legitimate planning judgment to include a future town centre in schedule 1(a) to promote investment and protect the intended centre's future viability. For these reasons the appeal was dismissed.

Appeal dismissed. The Scottish Ministers were not required to apply the sequential approach in NPPG 8 when approving an alteration to the Structure Plan that proposed creation of a new town centre as an integral part of a wider redevelopment; and it was within the Joint Committee's planning judgment to add a proposed (not yet existing) Ravenscraig town centre to the list of town centres in the Structure Plan.

Lord Carloway reduced North Lanarkshire Council's decision and interdicted issue of planning permission (29 July 2004). The appeal against the Scottish Ministers' approval of the Alteration was heard by the Court of Session (Extra Division) and refused: 2005 CSIH 33. The appellants then appealed to the House of Lords, which dismissed the appeal: [2006] UKHL 48.