Angela Rayner has been urged to give the green light to a project to build a £750m Hollywood-style film and TV studio to prove the creative industries are an “economic priority”, a public inquiry into the project backed by the Avatar director James Cameron has heard.
Rayner, the deputy prime minister, will make a final decision on the proposed development of Marlow Film Studios based on a report produced after the inquiry into the project’s planning application. The hearings began on Tuesday and Rayner’s decision is seen as a test of Labour’s approach to planning and the creative industries.
The proposed development of Marlow Film Studios, which would have created 4,000 jobs, was turned down by Buckinghamshire council last May. The council cited concerns including over the impact on the road network and use of green-belt land.
In October, Rayner called in the rejected planning application for the studio complex, which has received high-profile backing from film-makers including Cameron and the 1917 director Sam Mendes. The project is led by Robert Laycock, who is the great nephew of Ian Fleming and an executive partner of the James Bond creator’s estate.
On the first day of the month-long public inquiry into the application, which will provide the report and a recommendation to Rayner, the counsel for the project immediately characterised the ultimate decision as a test of Labour’s commitment to grow the UK creative industries.
“The new Labour government has made it clear that enhancing the UK film and TV industry is a central economic priority,” Sasha White KC said. “If the UK government is serious about championing the creative industries then Marlow Film Studios can fulfil that objective. It is no exaggeration to say that this proposal is a gamechanger for the economic health of the county, London and the south-east and, frankly, the nation.”
White pointed to Labour’s sweeping reforms to planning, announced last year, including ordering councils to review their green-belt boundaries by identifying lower quality “grey belt” land that could be built on.
“The site is designated as part of the green belt,” he said. “However, [we] will argue that the site is land newly conceived by the Labour government as ‘grey belt’. We will rebut the pessimistic, unambitious and frankly shortsighted approach of this council.”
The legal team representing Buckinghamshire council, and a lawyer for campaign groups including Save Marlow, argued that the developers’ forecasts of future booming growth in the UK production industry are unfounded.
They pointed to Pinewood, the home to the Bond franchise and Disney’s UK production hub, putting on hold expansion plans for which it was granted council permission in 2022.
Last month, developers scrapped plans for nearby Wycombe Film Studios because of market uncertainty, instead opting to build a datacentre.
“The council supports the government’s growth agenda,” said Simon Bird, KC for Buckinghamshire council. “It is not a blocker of growth when it is proposed in the right location. It is inherently difficult to predict demand. The council is not satisfied that a demonstrable need exists.”
Under the appeals process, the Planning Inspectorate can conduct an inquiry (or hearings) and the secretary of state has the power to determine an appeal or recover an appeal at any stage until the planning inspector has issued their decision.
Any further appeal would then be through a judicial review application to the high court.
In theory, the secretary of state can call in a planning application for any reason, but in practice very few applications are called in each year.
