The housing minister has ordered Southend to publish its draft Local Plan, site BG1 included, by 6 November and submit it by March 2027. The council is taking legal advice.
Updated 2 November: the council has published the full draft plan for an extraordinary Cabinet on 5 November. It confirms BG1 is the “Bournes Green New Neighbourhood”, for at least 4,900 homes, and sets the consultation for 6 November to 21 December. Full details: Southend Local Plan Published: 4,900 Homes at Bournes Green.
The government has ordered Southend-on-Sea City Council to put its draft Local Plan out for public consultation by 6 November. The plan must go out as drafted, including the site councillors wanted to remove.
Matthew Pennycook, the housing and planning minister, made the direction in a letter to the council leader, Cllr Daniel Cowan, dated Friday 23 October. He used the Secretary of State’s default powers under section 27 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004. The council published the letter the same day (letter from Matthew Pennycook MP, 23 October 2026).
The council says it “must now” publish the plan and is taking legal advice (Southend-on-Sea City Council, 23 October).
What the minister has ordered
The letter directs the council to:
- hold the formal consultation on the draft plan, known as Regulation 19, starting no later than 6 November 2026
- run it for at least six weeks and close it no later than 31 December 2026
- submit the plan for examination by a planning inspector by 31 March 2027, with only minor changes unless the minister agrees otherwise
- take no step to withdraw the plan, and report progress to his officials every month
- keep the plan going to the end of its examination
- publish a revised timetable for the plan, its Local Development Scheme, by 6 November
The council can set out “exceptional circumstances” against intervention by 6 November. The letter says this “neither alters nor removes the direction”. If the council does not comply, the minister says he “will consider taking further action”.
Why: the BG1 site
The direction answers a letter Cllr Cowan sent on 18 September, when the council handed over its draft plan under an earlier direction. We covered that first step in Southend Local Plan: Minister Orders Draft Handed Over.
According to the minister, Cllr Cowan’s letter was “candid” that cross-party agreement on the plan “can only be achieved through the removal of the BG1 allocation”. Mr Pennycook says he is “not convinced that there is a planning or evidential basis” for cutting the plan’s housing requirement, “and in particular removing site BG1”. Doing so “could also risk the Plan being found unsound at examination”.
He concludes that the plan “as currently drafted” should go to consultation. Individual sites should be tested at the examination, which he calls “the appropriate forum”.
The letter does not describe BG1, and the draft plan has not yet been published, so we cannot confirm what the site covers. The largest allocation the council has described in public is an “infrastructure-led neighbourhood” of around 4,900 homes on land north of Southend, with a new country park. That was in its July announcement of a plan for 14,700 homes to 2045, against a government target of more than 28,000 (Southend-on-Sea City Council, 27 July).
The figures the minister relies on
The letter gives the facts behind his decision:
- The current plan dates from December 2007. At 19 years old, its policies “are likely to be significantly out of date”.
- Southend has failed the Housing Delivery Test three years running. It scored 37% in 2023, 28% in 2024 and 20% in 2025.
- The council can show only 1.3 years of housing land supply, against the five years national policy expects.
- Affordable housing delivery “remains well below need”.
He says these scores leave the council “continuously placed in presumption”. In plain terms, national policy tilts towards approving housing applications while the council is this far behind.
The minister also refers to a separate decision he made on 23 October. Councils that finish their final Regulation 19 consultation by 31 December 2026 get three more months to submit their plans. That is where Southend’s 31 March 2027 deadline comes from.
What the council says
Cllr Kevin Robinson, cabinet member for planning, property and governance, said: “The Council has been formally instructed by Central Government to publish the current draft Local Plan for consultation, which we must now do.”
“We will need to carefully consider the full implications of this Government direction, and we are taking legal advice accordingly,” he said.
He stressed that publication “does not mean that this draft local plan has been formally adopted by the City Council nor that it is the final version”, and urged residents, businesses and community groups to respond.
In a written answer for the 7 October full council, Cllr Cowan had said the plan would come back to the chamber, where all 51 councillors would decide whether to approve it. The direction now requires the consultation to go ahead by 6 November either way.
What it means for you
- You will get a formal say within a fortnight. The consultation must open by Friday 6 November and close by 31 December. Comments go through the council’s Local Plan website, which the council says will be updated before it opens.
- This stage is different. Regulation 19 comments are about whether the plan is legally compliant and “sound”. They go to the planning inspector who examines it, so comment on the evidence and on specific sites, not just on whether you like the plan.
- Nothing is decided yet. The plan is not adopted. The inspector decides whether BG1 and the other sites stay in.
- Applications are still judged on the old rules for now. Planning decisions use the 2007 Core Strategy, the 2015 Development Management Document and national policy. Our Southend planning applications guide explains how to follow and comment on them.
We will report the consultation when it opens, with the sites and housing numbers in the published draft.
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