Council agrees the submission of the Local Plan 2040

At Wednesday's Full Council agreed the submission of the Local Plan 2040.

The Local Plan is mainly about how we can best meet the government's growth targets to 2040 and makes allocations to deliver new housing and employment.

Our development strategy prioritises urban sites, including brownfield sites and redevelopment opportunities. Particularly where these support the regeneration of the town centre.

The Local Plans 2030 and 2040 will provide much needed new homes, including affordable homes. As well as good quality jobs and new infrastructure to support growing communities.

The Local Plan protects and consolidates our green infrastructure network.

In 2020, the Council was set a tough task. To carry out a review of its existing local plan policies and prepare a new plan in just three years. It was disappointing that we had to prepare a new plan so soon after finishing the last one. Especially as the two issues that gave rise to the immediate review policy have since fallen away.

Firstly, the Council has not needed to take account of any requirements contained in the Ox Cam Arc Spatial Framework. The Arc has not been a government priority over the last three years, and has made no progress since 2019.

Secondly, Bedford Borough Council has had no need to step in and allocate sites in villages. This is because parish councils have worked hard to make sure that neighbourhood plans are in place and that they contain the housing allocations required in line with the Local Plan 2030.

Our communities have had three opportunities to give their views.

• Firstly on the plan's scope in 2020.
• Then on development strategy options in 2021.
• And finally on a draft plan in 2022.

At every stage, responses have helped to shape the plan. We have listened and acted accordingly.

We asked landowners and others with an interest in land to put forward potential development sites, and details of around 450 were originally sent to the Council for consideration.

We have taken account of the fact that 14 neighbourhood plans have recently allocated space for around 2,400 new homes, and we need to allow time for those to be built and for new communities to become established.

As a result, the Local Plan 2040 does not rely on parish councils to allocate additional development land in neighbourhood plans.

We have taken advantage of opportunities for sustainable growth around new stations on the East West Rail route. We are allocating two new settlements. One at Kempston Hardwick, south of Bedford and another at Little Barford to the east of the A1. South of Bedford, other allocations will also have good access to new and existing rail stations, maximising the opportunity for sustainable travel.

Local Plan 2030 and Local Plan 2040 provide a range of development sites of different types and sizes - residential, employment, urban, village, new settlement, small sites, medium-sized sites, brownfield and greenfield.

As the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill has been debated in Parliament, there has been much talk about further reform of the planning system. We expect this to involve a further change to the method used to calculate housing need. As a result, this Council's future housing numbers may go down, or up!

Consultation is due to take place before any changes are made to the National Planning Policy Framework, but this may be some way off. We will be keeping a close watch on the government's progress with planning reform. We will consider the implications for the Local Plan 2040 of every step they take in that process.

You can read Local Plan 2040 here.