The planning landscape is shifting at pace and for conveyancers, the risks are no longer confined to the red line on a title plan. That’s the warning from DevAssist founder Paul Addison and OnPoint Data co‑founder Jeremy Dorkins in the latest Today’s Conveyancer Podcast, where both argue that future development risk is now a core part of modern due diligence.

Addison launched DevAssist to tackle what lies outside the red line. As he puts it, “there’s a 46% chance… something could be happening just outside those boundaries”, something capable of affecting views, amenity or value. With the government’s accelerated push for housing, those odds are only rising.

The National Planning Policy Framework has been “injected with steroids” with the re‑introduced five‑year housing supply requirement triggering a surge in opportunistic applications. Councils unable to demonstrate supply face the tilted balance, where “benefit outweighs harm” and large schemes on greenfield land become difficult to resist.

Yet most buyers remain unaware of the deeper planning pipeline and you know just who they are going to blame when they find out their view is about to be blighted. Bird & Bird made it “abundantly clear” that solicitors must report on planning data or searches says Addison. "If something untoward does happen… the first point of call will be the conveyancing solicitor" adds Dorkins.

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