Housing minister intervenes citing council’s ‘opposition’ to updating 27-year-old local plan

Housing minister Matthew Pennycook has formally directed Basildon Borough Council to accelerate work on its long-delayed local plan, which has not been updated for 27 years.

In a letter sent on 21 July to council leader Andy Barnes, Pennycook said he was “of serious concern that the council has stated its opposition to the standard method and to progressing a plan that meets housing need in full.”

He reminded the council that the government was elected on a manifesto commitment to deliver 1.5 million homes this parliament, adding that “all areas are required to play their part.”

The borough’s existing local plan was adopted in 1998, with minor alterations the following year. Pennycook noted that the policies are now “likely to be significantly out of date” and that Basildon is one of only five authorities without a plan adopted under the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 and the only one in that group yet to submit its emerging plan for examination.

Pennycook wrote: “I note and appreciate your wish to protect green spaces in your borough and to ensure that development is supported by appropriate infrastructure and public services.

”I would simply point out that getting an up-to-date local plan in place is the most effective means of protecting green spaces and the green belt from speculative development and identifying the infrastructure needed to support growth and how it will be funded and delivered.”

The council’s most recent local development scheme, published in October 2025, set out a timetable for Regulation 19 consultation in winter 2025/26 and submission in spring 2026. Both deadlines have been missed. Pennycook said the local authority is “at least five months behind schedule.”

With a hard deadline of 31 December 2026 for submitting plans, he warned that the delays “place the council’s prospects of meeting that deadline in serious jeopardy.”

The letter also highlights Basildon’s under‑delivery of housing, with its housing delivery test score at 35% in 2023, which “places it among the poorest performers nationally and engages the presumption in favour of sustainable development.” The borough also lacks a five-year housing land supply strategy.

Pennycook’s directions require the council to commence Regulation 19 consultation by 10 August 2026, submit the plan by 31 December, avoid any steps to withdraw it and progress the plan up to the end of the examination process.

If the council fails to comply with the orders or fails to make “sufficient progress” to meeting the 31 December submission deadline, the minister said he will consider taking further action.

The local authority has until 4 August 2026 to inform the government of any “exceptional circumstances” that suggest that intervention is not appropriate.