Call to halt Bedford's local plan over 'unjustified and massively harmful' target for new homes

A countryside charity has called for the rescheduling of Bedford Borough Council’s Local Plan 2040 so that housing targets can be revised to “more sustainable levels”.

Speaking at a Local Plan public examination session on Tuesday (June 13), Paul Jenkins from CPRE Bedfordshire, said the ‘standard method’ to determine the new homes target is “unjustified and massively harmful”.

“It translates to nearly 8,000 additional new homes over the plan period, and would require building at unprecedented rates for Bedford,” he said.

He added that a housing need assessment found that housing needs for the borough over the 20 year plan period could be met by building 977 new homes a year, a “very considerably lower figure” than the 1,355 homes proposed in the Local Plan.

“CPRE had extensive discussions with the former mayor and senior planning officers on this matter over the period of the plan’s development,” Mr Jenkins said,

“We discovered that the former mayor entirely agreed with our position on the impact of the standard method, stating in correspondence and in meetings that he believed the government-imposed target is excessive and unsustainable,” he said.

Mr Jenkins added that correspondence between the council and the Levelling Up Department shows that the council made the case that on the basis of past over performance, they were obliged to plan for an excessive growth rate.

“Far in excess of that which the borough can sustainably accommodate,” Mr Jenkins said.

“CPRE Bedfordshire’s position is that we are completely unable to accept the figure of 1,355 new homes per year based on a wildly exaggerated expectation of levels of inward migration.

“Our countryside is precious, these plans will not make housing cheaper or any more accessible for local people.

“The only people to benefit from this [plan] will be developers and landowners,” he said.

“We therefore respectfully suggest that [the planning inspector] thinks again about the new mayor’s request to reschedule the plan, so that the housing targets in this plan can be revised to more sustainable levels

“And most importantly, find a way of doing this that prevents the council from being at risk of speculative development by being classified as having an ‘out of date’ plan in the interim,” he said.

Jack Smyth, counsel Arnold White Estates (Arrow Planning) didn’t agree that the proposed figure was too high.

He said that had the standard method been applied in the Local Plan 2030, there would have been an annual target of “about 1280 per year” instead of 970[sic].

“The location of the borough at the heart of the Oxford Cambridge Arc which means it’s in a perfect location to accommodate a great degree of investment and growth,” he said.

“Given that it’s intended to be a nationally important area for life sciences and high-tech manufacturing, and all the rest of it, it’s important that there is sufficient housing provided.

“There is scope for this borough to be more ambitious in housing,” he said.

The public hearing sessions are part of the process to consider the soundness of the submitted plan and whether it has been prepared in accordance with the legal and procedural requirements.

They are being held in two blocks, Monday, June 12 to Friday, June 23, and Monday, September 11 to Friday, September 22.

More information can be found on the council’s website.