Calum Miller MP condemns "Whitehall power grab" as Government strips planning powers from Cherwell

Local MP says Ministers are blaming the council for a housing crisis caused by national infrastructure failure

Calum Miller MP, the Liberal Democrat MP for Bicester and Woodstock, has condemned the Government’s decision to strip Cherwell District Council of control over major planning decisions, calling it a centralising power grab that punishes local people for failures made in Whitehall.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government today designated Cherwell under section 62A of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. The effect is that developers can now bypass the local planning authority entirely and take major applications straight to the Planning Inspectorate, removing them from councillors elected by and accountable to local residents.

The decision lands on an area already under intense growth pressure, where residents have watched housing numbers rise for years while the roads, surgeries, schools and utilities needed to support that growth have failed to keep pace. More than 11,000 homes across Cherwell already hold planning permission but have not been built, in large part because the electricity, water and sewage capacity to support them has never been delivered.

Calum Miller MP said:

“This is a Whitehall power grab dressed up as a plan for growth.

“The Government is blaming Cherwell for delays to development caused in large part by national infrastructure failure. Over 11,000 homes already have permission but have not yet been built, too often because the electricity, roads, water and sewage capacity needed to support growth has not been delivered.

“I want to see homes built, including the genuinely affordable homes that young people in Bicester and Woodstock badly need. Too many are being priced out of the place they grew up. But growth without infrastructure is not growth. It means more pressure on GP surgeries, roads, schools and sewage systems. Rather than fixing those barriers, Ministers are taking powers away from local councillors and giving developers a route around local democratic decision-making.

“Labour talks about devolution and empowering communities, but when local voices point out practical problems with its political timetable, it reaches for Whitehall control. It is deeply ironic that a Labour Government is now using a period of Conservative leadership enabled by Cherwell Labour and Sean Woodcock to justify stripping powers from local councillors.

“Local people are being punished for a problem Ministers have failed to solve.”

The designation is based on the rate at which the council’s decisions on major applications were overturned on appeal. The Government cites a figure of 11.2 per cent against a threshold of 10 per cent. But the council’s own analysis shows the problem is driven overwhelmingly by a single year, 2023 to 2024, when Cherwell was run by a minority Conservative administration. That administration was put into office after the local Labour group, led by Sean Woodcock, withdrew from an agreement to form a joint administration with the Liberal Democrats and Greens.

Calum Miller pointed to the wider context that Ministers have ignored. Over 7,000 homes consented at North West Bicester could not proceed because of a shortage of electricity supply, a constraint set nationally rather than locally. The same shortage hit local businesses and the new Thames Valley Police forensics laboratory on Howes Lane, which was first promised a connection in 2027 only to be told, after construction had begun, that the date had slipped to 2037. Where local housing land supply falls short because consents cannot be built out, speculative developers are able to bring forward sites outside the local plan, which is precisely the kind of unwelcome development residents and parish councils across Cherwell have fought.

He added that the council had been working closely with the Government’s own ATLAS team and Homes England to resolve the electricity constraint, with discussions advancing towards an earlier connection for Bicester from East Claydon. Rather than backing that work, Ministers have chosen to take powers away from the people closest to it.

Calum Miller MP added:

“This is not serious planning reform. It is the Government blaming councils for a problem Whitehall helped create.

“You cannot force growth on Bicester, Woodstock, Kidlington and surrounding areas from a desk in Whitehall while ducking responsibility for the infrastructure that makes that growth work. I will be pressing Ministers to reverse this decision.”