Work on presenting a new local planning bible for Milton Keynes is set to be put back three years but the move does not risk making the borough a sitting duck for developers, a meeting heard.
The planning cabinet advisory group was told that there are a number of reasons why Milton Keynes Council would find it ‘extremely challenging’ to put together an updated version of Plan:MK ready by 2022.
A Government inspector had called for a new plan after approving Plan:MK in 2020 but the council says this is a “statement of intent rather than a binding requirement”.
Council officers say they could mount a legal defence of this if developers challenge it.
Thursday’s YouTube meeting, made available to view on Friday, heard a number of members seek assurances that moves to submit Plan:MK 2 to the Government in 2025 would not undermine approved strategies.
Local plans help show the Government how councils are planning to meet their housing growth targets. Every council must have enough land for five years’ worth of housing growth, known as a five year land supply.
Head of planning Jon Palmer told the meeting that the council has a proven five year land supply and enough sites allocated to keep delivering new homes.
And council leader Cllr Pete Marland (Lab, Wolverton), who has temporary oversight of the council’s planning portfolio, said that the council is “doing well on delivering housing.”
Cllr Marland is set to make a delegated decision at a public meeting on March 2 to set a new timetable for preparing the plan with all the background evidence it needs to be robust.
Conservative, Lib Dem and the parish council representatives agreed that it made sense to delay.
Cllr David Hopkins (Con, Danesborough & Walton) said the delay is “based on realism”.
The council is also waiting for Government decisions on the future of the entire planning system, as well as the publication of Whitehall’s thoughts on what will happen in the Oxford Cambridge Arc – with MK in the middle. The Arc has been identified as an economic growth area.
Cllr Marland, who has been part of discussions over the Arc, said it is “not a master plan in any shape or description”.
He added: “The majority of leaders indicated they would not take forward any allocation of numbers or sites.”
There have also been delays with the approval of local plans in some neighbouring councils, which is delaying the start of talks with them under a duty they have to cooperate.
