What happens if you don’t make a “sound” Local Plan?
A few months ago the Government issued a missive saying “Thou shalt maketh a Local Plan in 30 months or thou shalt go to the naughty step and feel thoroughly ashamed of thyself” but without any real threat of “violence against the person” if they didn’t comply. And as the map on the picture from the ONS indicates, all the Reform UK blue bits are the ones without an up-to-date Local Plan and the Tory blue ones are the ones with up-to-date Local Plans (I thought the colouring was particularly amusing).
But that has changed recently… There is now a very well publicised and quite public spat going on between the Leader of Bucks Council and the Planning Minister. The Minister in his letter said that the Bucks Local Plan needs “specific milestones”, after noting the local authority’s "history of poor performance with plan-making" and there was “no leeway” within the timetable of the current LDS for “milestones to slip, or for additional consultations to be undertaken beyond those already scheduled”.
The Leader, Cllr Pete Broadbent, in response said, “We are working to a very tight timescale but have consistently delivered against it. A vast amount of work is needed to fulfil the government’s requirement of 95,000 new homes in Buckinghamshire in a way that ensures sustainability and supports our existing communities, however we remain committed to working to the timescales imposed by the government.”
Then there is the Minister’s intervention in Three Rivers, that is going through the process of producing its latest version of their Local Plan with a shortfall of more than 5,000 dwellings against their housing target. Matthew Pennycook, has written to the Council to say it is not good enough. His letter says the plan only provides for 56% of the houses the district will need between now and 2041. He wrote: "I have little confidence that your emerging plan is satisfactory and capable of being found sound or legally compliant at examination.”… and gave them two weeks to come up with justifications for these numbers and ordered them not to take the plan any further until he has decided whether to direct that changes are made.
The Government has also helped Councils quite a bit with getting their Local Plans up and running (the words “something is better than nothing” come to mind in some cases) with the watering down of “Duty to Co-operate” etc and Local Plans like the ones in Horsham, Mid Sussex and Wiltshire and a few other places are now making progress. So, it is not all doom and gloom for the Councils.
And many, many, many more Local Plans are on the way and we will see the Government cracking the whip more…
Then there is making sure your site is in the new Local Plan… but for that, give me a call… All of our team have made Local Plans so we know what to do!
Until next week,
Henry
07736121014