Liberal Democrats angered by decision made by Reform UK Administration at West Northants Council Bins Six Years of Work on The Local Plan

West Northamptonshire Council’s Reform UK administration has voted to scrap six years of work on the Council’s new Local Plan, throwing away more than £4 million of taxpayers’ money and leaving the area potentially exposed to increased speculative development.

At a meeting of the Council’s Planning Policy Committee on Monday evening, the three Reform UK Cabinet members who make up the voting membership of the Executive committee voted to reject the Regulation 19 stage of the draft Local Plan and start the process again. 

The decision means that years of work on the Local Plan will now have to be restarted, with officers estimating that preparing a replacement plan will cost more than £700,000 on top of the money already spent. This additional expenditure has not been budgeted for.

West Northamptonshire Council has been working on its new Local Plan since 2021, following work that began under the former Conservative administration. The Local Plan is the key planning document which sets out where and how much housing, employment and other development should take place, helping to shape growth in a controlled way.

The plan has already been through four public consultations, alongside extensive evidence gathering and preparation. The draft Regulation 19 plan was ready for its final six-week public consultation, after which it would have been submitted to the Planning Inspectorate for independent examination.

Instead, the Reform administration has chosen to abandon the process and start again. Officers estimate this will take around three years under the new timetable. The decision also leaves West Northamptonshire without an up-to-date Local Plan for a significant period, potentially making communities more vulnerable to speculative planning applications.

At Monday’s meeting, Liberal Democrat Group Leader Cllr Jonathan Harris warned that developers had already seen the sites proposed in the draft plan and had commented on them.

He questioned why developers would not use this information to submit speculative applications, including on sites which could subsequently be removed from a replacement plan.  “Speculative applications for a council with less than a five-year land supply leaves us open to a free for all approach to development. It leaves our communities vulnerable.” he said.

“The proposed Local Plan was not perfect, and Liberal Democrat councillors have raised concerns about some of its policies and omissions. However, having an adopted Local Plan would have provided West Northamptonshire with clearer planning policies and greater control over where development takes place.”

Cllr Andrew Simpson said:

“This is a reckless waste of public money and is likely to make it harder, not easier, to control development in our villages and communities. The proposed plan wasn't perfect, but it would have given communities and councillors a much stronger framework for deciding where development should go. Instead, Reform have chosen to throw six years of work away and leave West Northamptonshire more exposed to speculative development while another plan is prepared. What is particularly concerning is that there was no clear or compelling reason presented for throwing away the existing plan. This is yet another example of West Northamptonshire Council’s Reform UK administration going rogue.”

Cllr Rosie Humphreys said:

“There are parts of the plan that we, as ward members, take issue with, as well as omissions in policies that we regret. However, we cannot agree that the decision made by the Executive on Monday evening was a sound one made in the best interests of West Northamptonshire residents.  One has to wonder whether this is simply a platform for political posturing and future election campaigns.”

The decision comes despite the fact that the new 2026 National Planning Policy Framework, published in August, was consulted on earlier in the year. There was nothing in the new framework that came as a surprise to the Council.  Work on the Local Plan had also already been delayed by at least six months to allow the newly elected Reform UK administration time to get up to speed with the process.

Council officers now face the substantial task of developing a new Local Plan from scratch. This will not simply be a matter of cutting and pasting the existing document, as a new plan will require further evidence, assessment, consultation and preparation.

Officers have also confirmed that they are currently unable to provide an estimated timeframe for when the new plan will be ready to come back to the Planning Policy Committee.

There is also a further uncertainty. Council officers are meeting with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) to discuss the decision, and there is a risk that the Government could require WNC to progress the existing draft plan alongside the preparation of a new one.  This follows a recent direction issued to Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council by MHCLG on 4 September 2026 requiring it to proceed with its Regulation 19 plan.

Cllr Harris added:

“The Government is pursuing an extremely ambitious housebuilding strategy. If WNC is required to run both processes concurrently, the Reform administration’s decision could end up costing taxpayers even more, while creating further uncertainty for communities and developers. The irony is that Reform claim to want greater local control over development. Their decision to scrap the Local Plan could actually make it harder for local communities to have a meaningful say over where development takes place.”