The Reg 19 consultation on 27,918 homes closes 11.59pm on Tuesday 22 September. Ministers ordered it, and it is the last chance before examination.

Residents have until 11.59pm on Tuesday 22 September to comment on the Basildon Local Plan that would build a minimum of 27,918 homes across the borough by 2043. After that the plan goes to a government planning inspector, and the council’s own guidance is blunt about what this stage is: the Statement of Representations Procedure describes it as the final six-week window before the plan is submitted to the Secretary of State.

The consultation opened at midday on Monday 10 August. It is running at all because ministers ordered it. On 21 July the Secretary of State used powers under section 27 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 to intervene in Basildon’s plan-making, and the council’s own Cabinet Member Decision Record sets out what the letter told it to do:

  • start the Regulation 19 consultation by no later than 10 August 2026
  • submit the plan for examination by no later than 31 December 2026
  • publish a revised Local Development Scheme by 10 August 2026

That record, signed off on 29 July, also states the consequence of not complying. It says failure “may lead to further and more intrusive intervention, including but not limited to the Secretary of State taking over as the local planning authority, removing all control from Basildon Council.”

Timeline of the Basildon Local Plan Regulation 19 consultation, with the 22 September deadline, alongside the plan's headline numbers.

What the plan actually proposes

The headline figure comes from Policy SG1 of the Regulation 19 plan. Over the period 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2043 the plan makes provision for:

  • a minimum of 27,918 homes, calculated by the government’s standard method
  • a minimum of 10,420 of those as affordable homes
  • a minimum of 302 new Gypsy and Traveller pitches and 14 Travelling Showpeople yards
  • a minimum of 135 hectares of new employment land

The plan says the borough needs at least 1,284 homes a year. Because Basildon has previously failed to deliver 85 per cent of that, planning guidance adds a 20 per cent buffer for the next five years, taking the requirement to 1,541 homes a year until 2031.

Twenty-nine housing allocations carry most of it. Sites H1 to H29 are expected to deliver 18,305 homes on their own, at locations including South East Billericay, Great Burstead, land west and east of Bowers Gifford, Gardiners Lane South, land north of Dry Street, Crays Hill, Ramsden Bellhouse and several sites along London Road in Wickford. The council states plainly in paragraph 4.10 that “the only option to deliver the remaining homes is to amend the boundary of the Green Belt”.

Two changes were made after the last round of consultation closed in January. A new site at Bell’s Hill Road in Vange was added for around 30 homes, and land at Potash Road was dropped, having previously been considered for up to 105 homes, because of the need to protect priority habitat woodland and the Forty Acre Plantation Local Wildlife Site.

The council does not endorse its own housing target

The report Cabinet considered on 23 July is unusually direct about this. It asked members to act “without endorsing the Regulation 19 Local Plan, its housing requirement, spatial strategy or site allocations”, and recorded that the administration “considers the resulting housing target to be too high”.

Cabinet’s resolution that evening noted the Secretary of State’s letter, directed officers to comply with it, and noted an intention to consider “a coordinated response to the consultation and options for further Council”. The minutes record that the administration had intended to put the plan to full council, “but that the ministerial direction required immediate action”.

A motion in the name of the Leader, Councillor Barnes, then went to the full council meeting on 10 September as item 12. Published in the agenda pack, it asked the council to record its “disappointment that local democratic decision-making has been overridden” and to send its formal comments to the Secretary of State and the inspector as advisory representations. The council had not published the minutes of that meeting when this article went out, so what the chamber finally resolved is not yet on the public record.

The stakes for delay are set out in the same Cabinet report. Basildon’s adopted Local Plan dates from 1998 and is described as the second oldest in the country. If the plan misses the 31 December 2026 submission deadline it would have to be redone under the new plan-making system, which the report estimates would take a minimum of 30 months and cost £2 million.

What it means for you

This is a technical consultation, not a popularity poll, and that changes how you should write. The council’s guidance note says the inspector will consider whether the plan is legally compliant and whether it is “sound”, meaning positively prepared, justified, effective and consistent with national policy. Saying you object to a site is weaker than saying which soundness test it fails and why.

Three practical points from the council’s own documents:

  • Anonymous comments will not be accepted. The guidance note says names of people making representations will be made available, including on the council’s website.
  • Late comments cannot be considered. The Cabinet report states the council “will be unable to consider comments submitted beyond the consultation period”.
  • You do not have to do it online. Paper copies are available to view at the Basildon Centre, Basildon Library, Wickford Library on Market Road and Billericay Library at 143 High Street. Check library opening hours first.

Comments go through the council’s platform at basildon-lp-reg19.commonplace.is, or by email to localplan@basildon.gov.uk using the representation form, or by post or hand delivery to Planning Strategy and Implementation at the Basildon Centre, St Martin’s Square, Basildon, SS14 1DL.

If the plan is submitted on time, examination follows in 2027. Until it is adopted, the 1998 plan remains the one against which applications are judged, which is why the borough keeps seeing speculative schemes come forward. Our running coverage of those is on the Basildon planning news page.

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