Braintree District Council’s Leader has written to the Secretary of State urging a rethink on its plans to limit council's abilities to refuse planning permission for 150 homes+ housing developments.
It follows a motion passed at a meeting of Full Council on 8 December 2025, presented by Councillor Gabrielle Spray, Cabinet Member for Planning at Braintree District Council, after the government announced planned changes to the National Planning Policy Framework that would require councils to tell the government when they intend to reject new housing developments of more than 150 homes. The housing secretary would then decide whether to step in and make the decision instead.
The letter outlines the council’s serious concerns over referring developments over 150 homes to the Secretary of State, stating it “undermines local decision-making and local democracy”.
While the council supports the delivery of new homes, it stresses that this must not come at the cost of quality, proper planning, or essential local services. The letter highlights that when decisions are taken away from the local level, “permissions granted on appeal leave important details to be dealt with through conditions rather than requiring more detail upfront, which allows the council to hold developers to account in terms of the quality of the place they are creating”.
The council asks the government to reconsider its position and a change to the call-in powers, and instead requesting it “turns its attention to ensuring developers who are granted planning permission are incentivised to build as quickly as possible in order to avoid an influx of applications for over 150 units which look to bypass local decision-makers.”
Cllr Graham Butland, Leader of Braintree District Council, said: “We have serious concerns over the Government plans that essentially attempts to stop councils from rejecting unsuitable large housing developments.
“While we are committed to building for the future, which we are planning for through our Local Plan review, these changes weaken local democracy and decision-making for councils like ours, who are already working hard to meet challenging housing targets set by central government.
“It’s also just as important that new homes are not only delivered but are high quality, affordable, offer the right mix of tenure and supported by the right infrastructure.
“Rather than cut out the voice of local people and councils in the planning system, the government should take action on developers who sit on land once granted planning permission but fail to build, which directly affects how councils can demonstrate their five-year housing land supply and have no powers to tackle it.”
The letter is available for the public to view here.