Authority Monitoring Report 2023 to 2024
5. Development Plan Preparation and Progress
We are required by legislation to have a new Buckinghamshire-wide Local Plan in place. This Local Plan will cover the whole of the Buckinghamshire Council area for the period up to 2045. It will be part of the development plan.
The Council have continued to make progress on the Plan despite change and uncertainty in the national approach to plan-making. Table 1 shows an expected timetable as well as progress to date.
| Stages of Plan Making | Anticipated Timings |
|---|---|
|
Stage 1: Plan Preparation • Duty to Cooperate • Evidence Gathering • Plan Writing • Sustainability Appraisal |
Ongoing |
| Stage 2: Regulation 18 consultation on draft plan | September/October 2025 |
| Stage 3: Further plan preparation | November 2025 to June 2026 |
| Stage 4: Regulation 19 publicity period | July/August 2026 |
| Stage 5: Submission of the plan for examination to the Planning Inspectorate | December 2026 |
| Stage 6: Examination | December 2026 to September 2027 |
| Stage 7: Receipt of Inspector's report and Plan Adoption | September 2027 to December 2027 |
In May 2022 the Government set out more detail on its proposed reforms to the planning system in the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill (LURB). Following its passage through Parliament, the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act (LURA) was given Royal Assent on 26 October 2023. Changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) also followed in December 2023.
The Council continue to progress specific evidence base studies that contribute to the LP4B process.
Calls for Sites
As part of the Local Plan preparation, we need to identify sites which could meet our housing and economic needs for Buckinghamshire up to 2045. As such we have undertaken 3 ‘Call for Sites’ engagement exercises between 2021 and 2022 where we received over 1,100 site submissions.
You can view a full list of submitted sites via our interactive map. It’s important to note that we are publishing this information as submitted by the site promoters and there is much more work to do.
Work is ongoing to assess these site submissions for their suitability, achievability and availability for development through our Housing and Economic Land Availability Assessment (HELAA) process.
Even if a site is suitable, achievable and available it does not follow automatically that it will be included in the Plan. Sites will need to deliver against the final preferred strategy and objectives for the Plan, and these are still being developed.