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Is "There would have not been a need" a common phrase in English?
It is very common in my first language and is used very often in daily conversations. For example,
Had you been a bit more descriptive in the very beginning, there would have not been a need to clarify things later.
But I just keyed in this phrase in Google and found only 9 results with this phrase and they all seem to be coming from either religious or scientific background.
…there would have been little need…
Using the determiner "little" seems to make the expression more natural albeit very formal.
By the way, the adverb "not" should follow the modal verb "would", and "any" is normally used in negative sentences.
There would not have been any need
The expression isn't quite correct in English. It should be
"there would not have been a need"
Note the word order, "would not have", rather than "would have not".
Also, it would be more common to say "it would not have been necessary to...".
