The Government has moved very quickly to claim that the High Court judgement on Eric Pickles' unilateral decision to scrap English regional strategies changes very little and to point out they will be abolished by the forthcoming Localism Bill.
In a ministerial statement, Mr Pickles said he respected the court's decision but the Localism Bill, expected later this month, would sweep away regional strategies.
He claimed the strategies' targets had led to the lowest peacetime house building levels since 1924.
"On 27 May 2010, the Government wrote to local planning authorities and to the Planning Inspectorate informing them of the coalition government's intention to rapidly abolish regional strategies and setting out its expectation that the letter should be taken into account as a material planning consideration in any decisions they were currently taking," he said.
"That advice still stands."
He said the Government's chief planner would be writing to local authorities and the Planning Inspectorate confirming they should regard forthcoming abolition as a material consideration.
But Cala Homes, which sought judicial review, said the public inquiry into its Winchester greenfield development would commence on 8 February and the court's decision would be "of some assistance".
"Given the very high standard of our proposals for the Barton Farm site and the extensive list of benefits that will be delivered for the local community, we regard our proposal as the most sustainable option," it said.
The Home Builders' Federation said the judgement was a wake-up call to the Government to put clear transitional arrangements in place.
It said it effectively reinstated regional strategies and local authorities would have to continue to use their requirements while the new system is introduced over the next two years.
"HBF and the industry remain keen to work with government to ensure that changes to the planning system are introduced in a clear and methodical way," said planning director Andrew Whitaker.
"Everyone involved in the delivery of housing, both private and public sectors, has been struggling with the policy vacuum caused by the revocation of regional strategies. Today's judgment allows the Government to put in place a clear transition to get from the old system to the proposed localism based one. This will avoid throwing away the many years of planning for future housing delivery in which many people, including local communities, have invested their time and money."
