Buckinghamshire Local Plan: Callum Anderson MP - My statement
Before I begin, I would like to thank local residents for bearing with me. Hopefully you will understand that I wanted my response to this to be measured, considered, and crafted through consultation with local people.
First of all, I would like to reiterate that I support housebuilding - including the housing targets set for Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes City Councils - and have always been clear about that. Throughout my time as a parliamentary candidate and now as a Member of Parliament, I have spoken to countless young people whose aspirations of owning a home or finding an affordable place to rent in the communities where they grew up feel increasingly out of reach. I am not prepared to turn my back on that challenge simply because it may be politically difficult.
At the same time, supporting housebuilding does not mean abandoning our countryside and our rural communities. The two are not mutually exclusive. I live in a Buckinghamshire village myself and value the rural character of our communities. We can build the homes we need while protecting what makes Buckinghamshire such a special place to live.
I find it deeply regrettable that the Conservatives at Buckinghamshire Council have taken so long to bring forward a Local Plan at all. The Council had six years from its creation to prepare one. Instead, the Conservative administration allowed the situation to drift to the point where the Minister for Housing and Planning felt compelled to intervene and impose a deadline for the production of a Local Plan. That intervention should never have been necessary.
Over the past few months, I have heard loud and clear that this consultation has caused genuine distress across north Buckinghamshire, and I share many of the concerns that have been raised.
It is of course important to be clear about where responsibility lies. While the Government sets planning rules and housing targets, it is Conservative-led Buckinghamshire Council that decides where those homes go. These site allocations are not decisions made in Westminster. They are decisions made by Buckinghamshire Council.
Yet several parish councils have told me they have struggled to secure meaningful engagement from Buckinghamshire Council on their Neighbourhood Plans, and there is little in this draft Plan that reassures them that approach will change. I also have concerns about whether Buckinghamshire Council has properly discharged its Duty to Co-operate, particularly given the scale of development proposed close to the Milton Keynes boundary and the lack of clarity around engagement with Milton Keynes City Council.
That is why I am disappointed that the draft Plan prepared by Buckinghamshire Council is so disproportionate in how housing has been allocated across our county. The former Aylesbury Vale area accounts for just 29 per cent of identified housing need, yet it is allocated 92 per cent of all new homes in the Plan. By contrast, Wycombe accounts for 24 per cent of housing need but receives only 5 per cent of allocations. Chiltern accounts for 32 per cent of housing need but receives just 2 per cent of allocations, while South Buckinghamshire accounts for 15 per cent but receives only 0.4 per cent. Put simply, north Buckinghamshire is being treated as Buckinghamshire Council's housing release valve.
The impact is particularly stark in communities such as Winslow, Beachampton and Turweston. Residents in Winslow are being asked to absorb thousands of new homes, while proposals around Beachampton, Whaddon and west Milton Keynes would create a major new settlement on an unprecedented scale for this part of the county. Communities are understandably asking why such a significant proportion of Buckinghamshire's future growth is being concentrated here and whether the infrastructure needed to support it will actually be delivered.
Quite frankly, I am not convinced that we currently have the answers. I remain concerned about roads, healthcare, school places, water and sewage capacity, employment opportunities, sports and recreation facilities, renewable energy infrastructure and wider connectivity across the county. I have not seen sufficient evidence demonstrating how services will keep pace with the scale of growth being proposed.
These concerns are reinforced by the Council's wider strategic planning. While I welcomed Buckinghamshire's Economic Growth Plan to 2045, it is striking that communities expected to accommodate significant growth receive so little attention within it. Winslow, despite being expected to take thousands of new homes, is barely mentioned, while there is no meaningful town centre strategy for either Winslow or Buckingham.
I am also concerned by the Council's approach to affordable housing. While the Government's expectation is that at least 40 per cent of new homes should be affordable, Buckinghamshire Council proposes a minimum requirement of just 25 per cent in the north and centre of the county, compared with 40 per cent in the south and east. I can see no convincing reason why residents in north Buckinghamshire should have fewer opportunities to access affordable housing than those elsewhere in the county.
The south of Buckinghamshire has all the assets needed to take a greater role in accommodating growth. Communities with stronger economic and transport links to London are well placed to take a fair share of future development. Yet this Plan concentrates overwhelming levels of growth in the north while asking comparatively little of other parts of the county.
I do not say this lightly, but I fear that Buckinghamshire Council is playing party-political politics to a potentially damaging degree regarding an issue that is too important for that approach.
Ever since I first met the then Leader of Buckinghamshire Council in July 2024, I have found this administration's starting position too often to be one of "no, we can't". I am disappointed that this apparent mindset has produced a highly political document, one that appears to place the greatest burden on those parts of our county that voted Labour at the last General Election, while sparing many areas represented by Conservative MPs and Conservative ward councillors.
Housing is too important for political games. Communities deserve genuine political leadership and a Local Plan that is fair, evidence-led and balanced across the whole county. Instead, this Plan risks placing the overwhelming burden of growth on north Buckinghamshire, dividing communities against one another and creating a future political battleground rather than delivering a sustainable strategy for the county as a whole.
I will continue to support the homes Buckinghamshire needs, but I will also continue to stand up for the infrastructure, public services and investment that must come alongside that growth, as well as for a proportionate distribution of development across the county. That is the standard to which I will continue to hold this Plan.
Callum Anderson MP
