The Local Plan for Buckinghamshire

A local plan sets out a vision and framework for the future development of an area.

It addresses the needs and opportunities over the next 20 years for:

• housing
• the economy
• community facilities
• infrastructure

We would like to ensure that Buckinghamshire remains a thriving and sustainable place to live.

The local plan will help protect the county’s rural character and valued landscapes, support healthy and inclusive communities, encourage economic prosperity, and enhance biodiversity. To achieve this, sustainable growth and thoughtful placemaking sits at the heart of our approach.

National planning requirements mean we must plan for around 95,500 new homes over the next twenty years. This is significantly higher than under previous national calculations. Despite this challenge, we remain committed to protecting our precious Green Belt, supporting well‑designed and sustainable neighbourhoods, and helping our town centres and local economies to grow.

We've been gathering a wide range of evidence to understand Buckinghamshire’s future needs. This includes research on:

• housing
• employment land
• the economy
• transport
• the environment
• climate
• infrastructure

We've engaged with residents, landowners, town and parish councils, neighbouring authorities, and infrastructure providers through a series of formal consultations and call for sites. More than 1,300 people took part in formal consultation during 2025. And we engaged with many more through a series of workshops and meetings.

We received over 1,400 site suggestions through our 'Calls for Sites' exercises. These have been carefully assessed against environmental, infrastructure, and planning considerations. Around 400 sites are now being published for further engagement and technical review.

We're now entering the next stage of plan-making, which is an informal sites engagement exercise from February to March 2026.

This engagement exercise falls within the Regulation 18 stage of plan making.

We're inviting feedback to validate the availability, suitability, and viability of the circa 400 sites with landowners and infrastructure providers.

This is not a formal public consultation, but an important opportunity for us to share initial site information and gather views from those with a direct interest in development land.

These key documents explain how potential development sites have been evaluated. They provide a shared evidence base for discussing options:

• Position Statement on Supply vs. Need (PDF, 351 KB); giving an up-to-date overview of Buckinghamshire’s housing and employment land needs compared with the supply currently identified
• Draft Housing and Economic Land Availability Assessment (HELAA) (XLSX, 167 KB); setting out the sites submitted to us and our initial assessment of their potential
  • you can also view our existing HELAA Methodology (DOCX, 1 MB)
• an interactive map; enabling users to explore the location of all assessed sites:
  • select the icon in the top left corner (the middle button, with 3 dots) sites included in the potential housing and employment supply are shown in turquoise, sites requiring further assessment are dark blue, and sites within the grey belt that are not included in the potential supply are shown in grey
• New and Expanded Settlements Study Summary (PDF, 18.4 MB); assessment of large strategic sites
• New and Expanded Settlements Study Methodology (PDF, 774 KB)
• Draft Green Belt Assessment; identifying the relative contribution of different areas of Green Belt to national Green Belt purposes:
  • Main Report (PDF, 5.5 MB)
  • Executive Summary (674 KB)
  • Appendix 1 Consultation (PDF, 401 KB)
  • Appendix 2 Assessment Areas (PDF, 30 MB)
  • Appendix 3 National Landscape (PDF, 2.36 MB)
  • Appendix 4 Local Green Space (PDF, 842 KB)
  • Appendix 5 Flood Risk (PDF, 834 KB)
  • Appendix 6 Biodiversity (PDF, 3.47 MB)
  • Appendix 7 Irreplaceable habitat (PDF, 789 KB)
  • Appendix 8 Historic Environment (PDF, 780 KB)
  • Appendix 9 National Landscape setting (PDF, 872 KB)
  • Appendix 10 Proformas A to B (PDF, 23 MB)
  • Appendix 10 Proformas C (PDF, 20 MB)
  • Appendix 10 Proformas D to G (PDF, 11 MB)
  • Appendix 10 Proformas H (PDF, 21 MB)
  • Appendix 10 Proformas I to N (PDF, 24 MB)
  • Appendix 10 Proformas P to W (PDF 24 MB)
  • Appendix 10 Proformas Settlement Not Applicable (Part 1) (PDF, 26 MB)
  • Appendix 10 Proformas Settlement Not Applicable (Part 2) (PDF, 24 MB)
• Sustainability Appraisal Note (PDF, 2.61 MB); an early-stage assessment that evaluates the likely environmental, social, and economic effects of emerging Local Plan options before the final plan is developed

As part of this exercise, we're inviting feedback from:

• landowners and agents
• town and parish councils
• developers
• infrastructure providers

We'd like feedback on the sites that may have potential for housing (including gypsy and traveller), employment, or mixed-use development. This includes sites identified in our emerging draft Housing and Economic Land Availability Assessment (HELAA) as well as any new information that stakeholders may wish to share with us.

Your views will help us refine the evidence base and shape the emerging strategy for where future development could take place. This work will feed into the publication version of the plan in the summer.

You can view all site information and submit your comments via our engagement platform on Your Voice Bucks.

View our engagement platform on Your Voice Bucks.

To submit your feedback, complete our online survey by 11:59pm on 16 March 2026.

We're welcoming feedback on:

• whether a site is available
• site constraints, opportunities, or infrastructure requirements
• local knowledge that may help inform future decisions

We'll review all of the feedback alongside technical evidence before we move to the next formal stage of the Local Plan.

Fill out the survey on Your Voice Bucks.

To give us feedback that is not about sites, submit your feedback on Opus.

You can view our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) (PDF, 286 KB).

We have also done the following: