Moira Constable was involved in establishing the Trust in the early 1970s, following a period as researcher, lobbyist and fieldworker making influential contributions to the tied cottage debate while research director of Shelter. She became Chief Executive of the Trust in 1983 and played an instrumental role in promoting the exception site as an invaluable source of land.
In the 1980s, New Forest District Council was among the first of the Local Planning Authorities to adopt a ‘local needs’ statement in its Local Plan, allowing planning permission to be granted on sites which would not otherwise attract planning permission. The very strict criteria which all proposals had to meet were then expressed in s52 Planning Agreements (forerunner of s106), restricting occupancy of the houses in perpetuity to local people on modest incomes.
The Trust joined forces with New Forest District Council to promote this approach around the country and persuade Ministers that it was a legitimate and sound approach to the problem of finding affordable land in small villages.
The New Forest experiment was followed closely and inspired other Planning Authorities to adopt similar policies ahead of official Ministerial endorsement. By February 1989, the then Secretary of State, Nicholas Ridley, finally announced that his Department would not stand in the way of proposals to introduce such policies in Local Plans. The advice was enshrined in PPG3 (subsequently PPS3). Without this change in planning policy, it is difficult to see where affordable land could have been found for the thousands of homes for local people which have since been provided.
Moira Constable was involved in establishing the Trust in the early 1970s, following a period as researcher, lobbyist and fieldworker making influential contributions to the tied cottage debate while research director of Shelter. She became Chief Executive of the Trust in 1983 and played an instrumental role in promoting the exception site as an invaluable source of land.