Bucks MPs raise concerns over planning policy changes coming into force

New regulations from tomorrow (31/10) mean ward councillors will no longer be able to "call-in" applications.

Multiple Buckinghamshire politicians have questioned the implications of the Government's Town and Country Planning Regulations 2026. 

Lib Dem MP for Chesham and Amersham Sarah Green raised her concerns in a Westminster Hall debate on Wednesday (28/10), saying that removing councillors' ability to call in applications "will undermine local accountability and leave our green belt more vulnerable to inappropriate development".

She said with no county-wide local plan currently in place, Buckinghamshire is already seeing speculative planning applications coming forward, also arguing "local voices must remain at the heart of the decisions that shape our communities."

Conservative MP for Mid-Bucks Greg Smith echoed her concerns in a social media post, calling the changes "simply anti-democratic, taking power away from elected councillors and vesting power in bureaucrats".

He said he's voted against all these planning changes at Westminster and has been discussing next steps on pushing back on this "nonsense" with Bucks Council leader Steven Broadbent, who appeared in an accompanying video on Smith's post. 

The pair also discussed the "National Scheme of Delegation" in relation to planning decisions established in the new regulations, which means local planning authorities will no longer have full discretion to determine which applications are decided by planning committees and which are delegated to officers. 

In the video, Steven Broadbent said: "amazingly, the government have decided that if there's disagreement about an application going to committee between the elected councillor and the officer, the officer is the one who has that supremacy in the final decision, taking away the democratic mandate that has been given by people who've elected the councillor in the first place". 

Greg Smith called the change "ludicrous", saying that Buckinghamshire is being "absolutely bombarded by speculative applications, developers trying to trash our countryside, things that are getting my constituents and your [Broadbent's] ward residents incredibly upset about these proposals.

"And we've got a government trying to say: 'no, no democracy here, no, no councillors making a decision, we'll decide thank you and we want to trash your countryside and build all over Buckinghamshire'"

He said he and Steven Broadbent would keep working together to push back against the changes.