Plans for up to 700 new homes on edge of Northamptonshire town APPROVED at appeal

Proposals for a huge housing estate on the western edge of Brackley have been approved after a planning appeal decision issued at the end of January.

The development will be built on 35 hectares of farmland, equivalent to 50 football pitches, between the A422 and Halse Road, just outside the town.

The scheme includes up to 700 homes, with as many as 280 classed as affordable. Access would be provided from a new junction at the A442/Banbury Road roundabout and from Halse Road, with a main road running through the site to link the two.

Plans also include a full-size rugby pitch for Brackley Rugby Union Football Club, new allotments and more than 10 hectares of public open space.

The plans were first submitted in 2021 but no decision had been made by June 2025. Therefore, an appeal was brought on the grounds of non-determination by the applicants Ashfield Land, Vulpes Land and Davidsons Developments and was examined at a four-day public inquiry held in October 2025.

At the inquiry, West Northamptonshire Council told the planning inspector it would have refused the scheme because there was no satisfactory section 106 agreement in place, but no decision was issued in time. However, they said that an acceptable legal agreement has since been reached and the council did not oppose the scheme.

In his decision, the planning inspector accepted that the development goes against current policies that restrict building outside Brackley. However, he said those policies carry less weight because the council cannot show it has enough land available to meet housing demand.

Explaining why the appeal was allowed, the Planning Inspectorate said: “The substantial benefits of the scheme… would significantly and demonstrably outweigh the adverse impacts of the development when assessed against the framework policies taken as a whole.”

The inspector said the new homes, including affordable housing, carried significant weight and that the site has reasonable access to Brackley’s services and facilities. Economic benefits and new sports and open space provision were also taken into account.

More than 100 objections were submitted during the process, with residents raising concerns about traffic, infrastructure and the loss of farmland. Despite this, the inspector concluded that the benefits of the development outweighed the harm and granted planning permission.