On Fri, 06 Jun 2008 10:26:59 +0100 (BST), a particular chimpanzee,
"Dave Liquorice" randomly hit the
keyboard and produced:

I may have the wrong end of the stick but ISTR that there is something in
the "local plan", possibly orginating from central government, that
restricts the number of new houses that can be built in a given period of
time in a given area.

I thought it was the other way round, in that LAs were under pressure
from Central Gov't to 'provide' a minimum number of new dwellings.
Certainly that was the case a few years ago when the Government would
'predict' how many new houses were needed in certain parts of the
country, then this was divvied up amongst local councils.
--
Hugo Nebula
"If no-one on the internet wants a piece of this,
just how far from the pack have you strayed?"