National Scheme of Delegation of Planning Functions

Victoria Collins Excerpts

Wednesday 28th October 2026 Westminster Hall

[Victoria Collins (Harpenden and Berkhamsted) (LD)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Lewell. I congratulate the right hon. Member for Aldridge-Brownhills (Wendy Morton) on securing this important debate.

Moira from Tring asked me:

“How we can take back our democracy which is being eroded at a shocking rate?”—

and, yes, she is talking about planning and about this change. She had read that these planning decisions are being taken from the councillors she has elected. She is absolutely right. First, we had the Conservative Government with their top-down targets, and now we have this Labour Government, who just keep taking power away from local councils and therefore communities.

There have been continual changes to the national planning policy framework, with more than 3,000 drafting changes, all taking power away. The introduction of grey belt has effectively opened our green belt to developers. Ever higher top-down targets mean that, after St Albans had adopted a housing plan, the Government are adding 9,000 more houses. For Dacorum, on the other side of my constituency, there are another 6,000, again after a local plan had just been secured. That is all while we are facing Luton airport expansion and Bedford Universal Studios, which impact infrastructure for local people. And now, from Saturday, this latest regulation means officers must decide householder applications and schemes of up to nine homes. Ward, town and parish councillors will lose the right to call those applications in, as has been reiterated across the Chamber today.

The hon. Member for Hamble Valley (Paul Holmes) eloquently highlighted that the scale and nature of planning applications does not necessarily imply they are not controversial or important; even small things have a massive impact on our communities. Just because they are within scope, that does not mean they do not deserve to be looked at more closely by a committee of democratically elected councillors.

Lib Dem councillors from Dacorum and St Albans are horrified and share Moira’s concerns that their hands will be tied by this regulation and legal challenge, thanks to the Government. In the light of that, Liberal Democrat Dacorum borough council has voted to hold an extra meeting of its development management committee, so that as many called-in applications as possible can be heard before the changes take effect. However, that is no way to run our country or local councils.

What is really needed are long-term changes to planning law that support the voices of local communities, whether Tring, Redbourn, Berkhamsted or Sandridge. All that communities want is to get planning right for the places where they live and to raise legitimate concerns about their everyday lives. They know that we need to build, and they want a say in the homes, buildings and infrastructure that will impact their lives.

As my hon. Friend the Member for Didcot and Wantage (Olly Glover) highlighted—the right hon. Member for Aldridge-Brownhills raised this too—Ministers have given the excuse that this change will speed up house building. In fact, a survey of 62 councils found that more than 200,000 homes with planning permission still have not started, so committees are not the bottleneck. If the Government truly believe in power in every postcode, and if they are going to walk the walk instead of just talk the talk, people will feel it in their planning. That is so vital.

Will the Minister and the Government therefore stop taking powers from local communities and give them back the powers to get their homes and infrastructure right? Will they restore call-in powers for ward, town and parish councillors, and tackle the real problem of unbuilt homes with “use it or lose it” planning permission? Will they also look at wider reforms to bring our communities with us?