I always thought opening private strips, with full planning from day 1, was the future of GA facilities in the UK where property/land values are so high that most existing airfields are doomed in the long term.
Going for planning at the outset avoids the charade of the practically-useless 28 day rule, resulting in most strips operating like some top secret GCHQ signals facility...
The issues are finding ~ 1000m in one piece and reasonably level, the £100k or so budget for the planning application, another £200k spent levelling the place and building some hangars, £300k on a hard runway thick enough for piston twins, most GA pilots being too tight on money to want to pay even £10 to land, and those who have it won't put it where their mouth is
