I know that residents are worried about Buckinghamshire Council’s Local Plan, which sets out potential sites for housing developments, writes the MP for Aylesbury Laura Kyrke-Smith.
Nationally, we urgently need more homes. People can’t afford to rent or buy and they’re waiting too long for social housing. But we have to build in the right way.
First, housing must be accompanied by infrastructure and services. This wasn’t the case under the Conservatives, who allowed more than 13,000 homes to be built in our area without the roads, GP surgeries or jobs that we needed. This Government has updated national planning policy to avoid this happening again.
Second, development must not come at the expense of nature. Kingsbrook is a brilliant example of collaboration between the Council, the developer and the RSPB, embedding hedgehog highways and swift bricks into the estate’s design.
Future housing developments should be on ‘brownfield’ land wherever possible, not natural habitats and high-quality agricultural land. Developers now have to pay into a Nature Restoration Fund, which will incentivise ecological planning.
Third, we have to build social and affordable homes - something the Conservatives failed to do, leaving people priced out of our area. Developers are now required to build 10%- 40% affordable homes, backed by £39 billion in government funding.
Buckinghamshire Council left our area vulnerable because for six years it failed to bring forward a Local Plan. This is despite the great groundwork laid by many village neighbourhood plans. This left the Government no choice but to set a target of around 95,000 homes by 2045, made up of some existing plans and some new.
Members of Parliament do not have a formal role in developing Local Plans, but I expect residents to be listened to and my own principles are clear: Future housing developments must be properly planned, sustainable and affordable.
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