The new plan must find room for 1,251 homes a year to 2050; the borough built 665 last year. Comments close 23 November. What it asks, and how to reply.
Bedford Borough Council has opened the first public consultation on the plan that will decide where homes, jobs and roads go in the borough until 2050. It began on Monday 12 October and closes at 11.59pm on Monday 23 November 2026.
The starting number is large. The scoping consultation document says the borough needs 1,251 new homes a year, or 30,024 over the 24 years from 2026 to 2050. That figure comes from the government’s standard method. The council adds that it will need “additional flexibility” on top, to cover current shortfalls and the effect of Universal on the housing market.
Last year the borough built 665.
What the council says it needs
The document’s own summary of the housing challenge is short:
- 1,251 homes a year, from the government’s standard method
- 30,024 homes in total, 2026 to 2050
- extra headroom for “current shortfalls” and national drivers such as Universal
- “significantly more land will need to be allocated” than in today’s plans
It also says plainly that “housing delivery has slowed, leaving us without a five-year land supply and more exposed to speculative and isolated development”. The council’s last published position was 3.35 years of supply, against the five years the government expects. That shortfall is why developers can win permission on land no plan has chosen.
How that compares with what has been built
The council’s Housing Monitoring Report 2025-26 counts every home finished each year. In the year to March 2026 the borough completed 665 net new homes, after 19 were lost to demolition or conversion.
That was the third year running below 700. The three years before were far stronger, including 1,465 in 2022/23, the best of the last eleven.
Over eleven years the borough completed 11,567 homes, an average of about 1,050 a year. Only four of those years reached 1,251: 2016/17, 2017/18, 2018/19 and 2022/23.
The 1,251 is a new national figure for 2026 onwards, so earlier years were judged against different targets. The comparison shows the scale of the change, not past failure.
Where last year’s homes went
Most of last year’s 665 came from a handful of big sites. The monitoring report’s table by parish gives:
| Place | Homes finished 2025/26 | Permitted, not yet built |
|---|---|---|
| Wixams | 230 | 441 |
| Shortstown | 118 | 124 |
| Biddenham | 66 | 494 |
| Bedford (unparished town) | 64 | 782 |
| Great Denham | 54 | 29 |
| Willington | 44 | 7 |
| Kempston (town) | 3 | 355 |
| Stewartby | 0 | 1,000 |
| Bromham | 7 | 754 |
| Sharnbrook | 1 | 509 |
Across the borough, 5,014 homes had planning permission at 31 March but had not been built. More than half of last year’s homes (54.4%) went on greenfield land, and 122 (17.8%) were affordable.
What the consultation actually asks
This is the earliest stage. The council says no sites have been chosen, and the choices between growth options come at the next stage, in 2028. What it wants now is views on the direction. The questions include:
- where new homes should go, ranked: reusing brownfield sites and empty buildings, converting sites in and around Bedford town centre, extending towns and larger villages onto greenfield edges, building new villages, or growth along the A421, East West Rail and A6 corridors
- which homes are needed most: affordable homes to buy, social rent, family houses with gardens, smaller homes for first-time buyers and downsizers, or specialist and accessible homes
- where new employment sites should go, while “preventing an overconcentration of logistics and data centres”
- which green spaces to prioritise: woodland, rivers and flood risk, lakes and ponds, parks and paths, or wildlife habitats
- a set of ideas for “Bedford central”, the town centre and the brownfield land around the stations, to be ranked in order
- whether to limit clusters of hot food takeaways, vape shops and betting shops near schools and hospitals
The draft vision is that by 2050 the borough will be “the enterprising heart of the Oxford-Cambridge growth corridor”, with “an internationally significant visitor attraction”. The council asks whether people agree with it.
Tempsford and Universal
Two schemes sit over the whole plan. The document says the new plan will “define the extent of the area within the borough that could become part of the proposed new town at Tempsford”, on the borough’s north-eastern edge. The project initiation document notes that the new town straddles the boundary with Central Bedfordshire.
The consultation also describes Universal as opening in 2031 on a 476-acre site near Kempston Hardwick, with a peak of an estimated 12 million visitors a year.
A transport plan consultation follows
Roads and buses get their own exercise. A report to the Executive on Wednesday 14 October asks it to approve engagement on a new Local Transport Plan from November 2026 to March 2027, straight after this consultation. The last one ran from 2011 to 2021. The report says the two plans are being prepared separately but “in practice it is essential for them to be well integrated”.
Three things you can put forward
The same deadline, 11.59pm on 23 November, covers three separate routes:
- Comments on the plan itself, through the consultation portal. You must register, and the council says anonymous responses cannot be accepted.
- Local green space nominations. A separate form lets residents nominate parks, allotments, playing fields and greens to be protected from development. This is the route most likely to matter to a neighbourhood.
- Sites for development. The call for sites, for landowners and developers, has been extended to the same date.
The council’s announcement quotes Councillor Andrea Spice, portfolio holder for planning: “This consultation is a chance for you to share ideas or suggest land suitable to build homes, businesses or community spaces, so we can decide where development should happen.”
How to take part without the internet
The document gives these other ways in:
- drop-in sessions at the What’s On Bedford Borough Hub, 50 Silver Street, MK40 1SU, on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 1pm to 4pm while the consultation runs
- paper copies and a summary leaflet at the Bedford Borough Hub on Horne Lane, at the Silver Street hub and in libraries
- email to planning.forthefuture@bedford.gov.uk, or phone 01234 718070
- post to the Planning Policy and Strategy Team, Fourth floor, Borough Hall, Cauldwell Street, Bedford MK42 9AP
The timetable to 2029
The council’s published timetable runs as follows. All dates are indicative.
| Stage | When |
|---|---|
| This scoping consultation | 12 October to 23 November 2026 |
| Gateway 1 government check | April 2027 |
| Consultation on the draft plan and growth options | February to March 2028 |
| Consultation on the final draft | January to March 2029 |
| Submission to government | April 2029 |
| Examination by an inspector | April to October 2029 |
| Adoption | November 2029 |
This stage has already slipped once. The timetable notes it was due in September and October and moved to October and November “due to final preparation and document clearance requirements”.
Until 2029 the borough keeps deciding applications against the Local Plan 2030, adopted in 2020, and older saved policies from 2002 and 2013. Its previous attempt, the Local Plan 2040, was withdrawn.
What it means for you
- If there is a field, park or allotment near you that matters, the local green space form is the one to fill in before 23 November. Nominations made now feed into the plan from the start.
- If you have views on where 30,000 homes should go, the ranking question on locations is where they count. Greenfield edges of villages, new settlements and the transport corridors are all on the list.
- Nothing is being decided this autumn. The sites come in 2028. But the council’s Q&A says gateway checks will require it to show how this round’s feedback changed the plan.
Current planning applications near you are covered on our Bedford planning news page.
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