UK Construction and Law
Two councils are directed to move their local plans before the December deadline
By Staff Writer | 5 September 2026
The housing minister used the Secretary of State's default powers against Southend-on-Sea and Tonbridge and Malling on the same afternoon. One council must start a Regulation 19 consultation by 11 September. The other must hand over the draft it decided not to publish.
Two letters were published on 4 September 2026, both signed by the Rt Hon Matthew Pennycook MP, Minister of State for Housing and Planning, and both exercising the Secretary of State's default powers under section 27 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004. That section applies where the Secretary of State thinks a local planning authority is failing or omitting to do anything it is necessary for them to do in connection with the preparation, revision or adoption of a development plan document, and it allows either the preparation of the document centrally or the giving of directions to the authority.
The trigger was the same in each case. Both councils had a Regulation 19 draft ready and then decided not to publish it, with the 31 December 2026 submission deadline for the legacy plan-making system now close.
Tonbridge and Malling, five directions
Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council resolved on 3 September not to progress its Regulation 19 plan. The minister recorded the collaborative work done on the water supply issues, then set out the arithmetic against the council. The last local plan was adopted in September 2007 and is 19 years old. Housing Delivery Test scores were 60 per cent in 2023, 54 per cent in 2024 and 63 per cent in 2025, so the council has been continuously in presumption. It cannot demonstrate a five year housing land supply and its most recently published figure is 2.89 years. The 2025 affordability ratio in the area was 12.03, against 9.58 for the South East and 7.8 for England.
The directions are specific. Commence a Regulation 19 consultation on the emerging plan by no later than 11 September 2026 for a minimum of six weeks. Submit that plan by no later than 31 December 2026, with any proposed minor modifications, and refer anything larger than that to the Secretary of State. Take no step to withdraw the plan and report monthly on progress. Progress the plan to the end of the examination process. Publish a revised local development scheme by 11 September carrying those two milestones, under the power in section 15(4) of the same Act.
Southend, hand over the draft
Southend-on-Sea City Council paused publication and asked for an extension to the submission deadline. Its existing plan was adopted in 2007 and is almost 19 years old. Its 2025 Housing Delivery Test score of 20 per cent places it among the poorest performers nationally and engages the presumption in favour of sustainable development. The 2025 affordability ratio was 10.7, against 9.02 for the East of England and 7.8 for England. Work on the plan has run since at least 2019.
The direction there is narrower and, for anyone holding land in the borough, more ominous. Under section 27(2)(b) the council must provide the minister with the latest draft Regulation 19 plan it decided not to publish, together with all available evidence base documents, within two weeks. He will then decide whether to use further directions under section 21 or section 27.
Whilst I hope that the Council will continue to engage constructively with my Department, I'm afraid I must be clear at this stage that I will not hesitate to take further action if this request is not complied with.
Rt Hon Matthew Pennycook MP, Minister of State for Housing and Planning, closing his letter to Southend-on-Sea City Council
What it means on the ground
Both councils have until 18 September 2026 to put exceptional circumstances to the minister. Neither letter suspends the direction while they do it: each says in terms that the opportunity neither alters nor removes what has been directed.
For developers and their advisers the practical point is the one both letters repeat. Where a plan is not up to date, the minister expects development to come forward on a piecemeal and speculative basis, with less public engagement, and where the Housing Delivery Test result engages the presumption, the absence of a plan is what leaves an authority exposed at appeal.
Both letters also treat 31 December 2026 as the cut-off for the legacy system, and both warn that missing it means starting again under the new one. That is why the Tonbridge and Malling direction gives a consultation start date one week after the letter rather than a general instruction to get on with it.
Two councils were directed on one afternoon, on the same statutory ground, over the same refusal to consult. Any authority sitting on a finished Regulation 19 draft it has not published should read both letters as addressed to it.