12/12/2025
Dear SMG Supporter
Now that the dust has settled, we would like to provide you with our views on the outcome of the Marlow Film Studios planning inquiry.
At the inquiry, we argued that there is no unmet need for the studio and that consequently it would provide no meaningful benefit to Marlow, the film industry or the national economy. Therefore, there are no Very Special Circumstances that would outweigh its substantial harm to the green belt, the environment and the community.
The Secretary of State agreed that there is no unmet need but, paradoxically, decided that the economic benefits would be “very substantial” and that Very Special Circumstances therefore do exist. This conclusion was largely based on his view that the studio is “aligned” with the Government’s Industrial Strategy because of its “ambition” to attract more film productions to the UK and that this could create jobs, generate economic growth and strengthen the UK film industry.
We believe this is absurd. In our view his decision was based only on unsupported speculation and wishful thinking. It doesn’t properly consider the changing dynamics of the film and TV production industry, the errors in employment and GVA projections and the effect of displacement. We provided substantial evidence on these matters at the inquiry and our arguments held up under cross examination. We can only conclude that the world in which politicians and planners operate is very different from the real world.
We took expert legal advice on whether the High Court might be convinced that the decision was irrational or legally flawed in some way but were told that it is extremely unlikely. A high degree of deference is given to The Secretary of State’s planning judgement, his decision was based on lawful reasoning and the wording is watertight.
It is therefore highly unlikely that we would get an application for a Judicial Review accepted and if we did, it would almost certainly fail. Even if we succeeded, the Secretary of State would simply be instructed to correct the errors and he could, and very likely would, still approve the planning application. To put it bluntly, we’ve reached a dead end.
Therefore, the committee and directors of Save Marlow’s Greenbelt have sadly decided that our campaign against the film studio must now end. We would like to sincerely thank you for supporting us and please be assured that we will continue to campaign against inappropriate development in the green belt around Marlow.
The Directors and Committee of Save Marlow’s Greenbelt
