The High Court has landed a hugely embarrassing blow on communities secretary Eric Pickles' by ruling his peremptory 6 July announcement revoking regional strategies was unlawful.
Mr Justice Sales upheld an application for judicial review by Cala Homes which saw its plan to build 2,000 greenfield sprawl homes on 87ha of farmland near Winchester threatened by the move.
The plan is opposed by Winchester City Council and although an earlier application was approved on appeal, the house builder believes a fresh application, now the subject of appeal, was threatened by Mr Pickles' move.
Cala challenged his decision on two grounds.
The first was that the secretary of state's use of Section 79(6) of the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009 to revoke the seven approved regional strategies was unlawful as it undermined the Act's requirement that regional strategies should exist in each region.
The second was that the secretary of state should have reviewed whether the planning changes would require detailed environmental assessment before making the decision.
The court upheld both grounds.
The judge ruled that the Act maintains the regional planning provisions of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 and that Section 79(6) of the 2009 Act - about revision of the strategies - does not allow the minister to undermine Section 70(1) which stipulates the need for strategies.
"There is no sufficient indication in section 79(6) of the 2009 Act that Parliament intended to reserve to the secretary of state a power to set that whole elaborate structure at nought if, in his opinion, it was expedient or necessary to do so because it was not operating in the public interest," says the judgement.
It says all regional strategies were the subject of environmental assessments before they were adopted and rejects the Government view that revocation would not require equal treatment.
Royal Town Planning Institute head of policy Matt Thomson said the judgement would need to be looked at carefully before deciding definitively what its implications are.
"We look forward with interest what the legal remedy is," he said.
"Whatever the implications of this case are, what we need is a sound system of strategic planning. The RTPI is working closely with the Government to try to achieve this."
