Local Transport: Planning Developments

Julia Buckley Excerpts

Tuesday 24th February 2026 Westminster Hall

[Julia Buckley (Shrewsbury) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Desmond. I, too, thank the hon. Member for Harpenden and Berkhamsted (Victoria Collins) for securing today’s debate, which brings together so many of us who have a shared passion for aligning local transport with development.

I can understand why so many colleagues have come here today to raise concerns about future developments and how they see new properties as adding pressure to local transport, but I join my hon. Friend the Member for North West Leicestershire (Amanda Hack) in pointing out that many rural communities are already missing vital transport links for our existing residents. In Shropshire, we lost over 65% of our local buses under the last Government. Two out of every three buses were deleted. Imagine what that did to the largest inland county in this country. We now have communities that are isolated, residents who are lonely, and vital services, such as health, shops and community, that are just out of reach for so many.

Like many others here, one of my biggest challenges since becoming an MP has been how to help local transport partners work together to build back our transport infrastructure. I would like to draw the Minister’s attention to the opportunity that comes with new housing developments—not just the opportunity to secure funding and plans for more buses, trains, bus stops and networks, but opportunity that runs in the opposite direction. A couple of colleagues have mentioned the change to planning infrastructure, but when we consider strategic housing developments in our local plans, we need to reconsider the opportunities for maximising housing and development close to existing transport infrastructure.

The Rail Industry Association produced an influential report on this issue last October called “Station Investment Zones: A new model for investment in transport, housing and growth”. The argument from the industry is that well-connected stations already offer economic opportunity as engines of growth and that transport or local government landowners could unlock sites near stations, trams, buses or transport hubs to offer hyper-connected housing as infill.

There is another benefit from that approach—one that I have also heard Ministers mention. By investing in our station quarters, we can lift what can sometimes become forgotten corners of our towns and turn them into more brightly lit, well-used areas, with more footfall, amenities and bustle. Let us bring people back to the community hubs that these areas should always have been. That would also deliver more passengers for rail operators such as Great British Railways and reduce unnecessary car journeys, helping the modal shift that we are all trying to drive forward to reduce congestion and pollution in town centres such as Shrewsbury. I would love to see that type of development near my train station in Shrewsbury. Let us get more shops, cafés, streetlights, ATMs and footfall to complement the services that are already offered there.

I was therefore delighted that the Government amended planning policy in the NPPF to include a presumption in favour of suitable developments within 800 metres of a well-connected station. It is the ultimate example of joined-up Government: cross-departmental policy delivering much-needed housing where we already have transport infrastructure and in turn helping to fund more transport for the areas where housing will need to be increased, which Members have talked about today. On behalf of the people of Shrewsbury, I say to the Minister: thank you very much for bringing forward a sensible and impactful policy that will help all of us in the search for transport alongside housing.