West Worcestershire MP Harriett Baldwin has today reacted to plans to increase the South Worcestershire Development Plan numbers by more than 3,500 houses. Malvern Hills and Wychavon District Councils and Worcester City Council all approved the local plan proposing 23,200 houses for development in South Worcestershire until 2030. But Planning Inspector Roger Clews rejected the first proposal and told the three councils to carry out further work to identify a higher number of houses. The three councils have now submitted a revised housing requirement of between 26,700 and 27,300, based on new research. Harriett commented: “As I have said in Parliament, any econometric forecast of future housing need is imperfect because we can’t predict tomorrow, let alone 20 years hence. “What is crucial is that the local plan is adopted as quickly as possible by the inspector, so that local councils and communities are no longer at the mercy of speculative planning applications in unsuitable locations.” Last week, Harriett met with the UK’s chief planning inspector Sir Michael Pitt to ask him for advice on the how to speed up approval of the South Worcestershire Development Plan. Harriett teamed up with Mid Worcestershire MP Sir Peter Luff to ask Sir Michael to ensure that the South Worcestershire Development Plan process was not being hit by delays by the Inspectorate. Both MPs warned the inspector that delays were slowing locally agreed development while triggering speculative developments and disagreements with developers in other sites. Sir Michael said that local Planning Inspectors were working hard to approve local plans as quickly as possible and that he had recruited 50 extra staff to ensure that a bottleneck of local plans across the country get approved as quickly as possible. He agreed that developers have an incentive to delay local plans because they can use the extra time to apply for permission on other sites they have optioned. Harriett commented: “I arranged a meeting with the Chief Planning Inspector to see if he can speed up approval of the South Worcestershire Development Plan and end this speculative rash of housing applications in unapproved areas. “I was also eager to make the point that this plan has been democratically approved by three district councils and that the judicial inspection by the local Planning Inspector seems to be taking a very long time. “I would agree with Sir Michael Pitt that the sooner the local plan can be given a significant weight in planning appeals the better as it will help local jobs and growth and reflect our local, democratically agreed plans for the area.”