What is the 'tilted balance'?

Planning Legislation* requires decisions to be made in accordance with the Development Plan unless material considerations indicate otherwise. This means that the decision taker must take as a starting point the Development Plan and balance it and all other material considerations to arrive at a decision on whether or not to grant planning permission. If the harms outweigh the benefits, planning permission will usually be refused. Paragraph 11 of the NPPF, under the 'presumption in favour of sustainable development', sets out circumstances where this balancing exercise should be weighted towards granting permission. This is the case where there are no relevant policies in the Development Plan or the relevant policies are 'out of date'. These circumstances become a material consideration, which 'tilts' the balancing exercise from a neutral balance to one where there must be compelling reasons for permission to be withheld. The flow chart below is designed to help explain the circumstances where the tilted balance must be applied. 

Councillors can refuse an application but this usually results in the developer taking the application to 'appeal' as happened recently with the 'Gladman' site in Four Marks for 60 houses on Lymington Bottom. The developer won!