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Housing secretary Robert Jenrick has issued an ultimatum to a local authority amid an escalating row over a move to scrap its controversial local plan.
Mr Jenrick has written to South Oxfordshire District Council giving it a deadline of the end of this month to explain if there are “exceptional circumstances” over why it does not have a local plan for housing and infrastructure.
The row has emerged after the council’s Liberal Democrat-Green-independent coalition cabinet voted in October to scrap the draft local plan developed by the previous Conservative administration.
But Mr Jenrick, who last year intervened to stop the council from taking any further action on the plan, this week said he was considering using powers under Section 27 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, which would allow him to “prepare or revise” the document himself.
Mr Jenrick’s said the other options he was considering was to force the council to prepare or revise the document or invite Oxfordshire County Council to prepare the plan. In response, the council said it is “considering its options”.
The council’s coalition cabinet is concerned about the levels of housebuilding in the current draft plan, which includes 775 new homes a year and the release of green belt land. Councillors say the plan fails to acknowledge the climate emergency.
Mr Jenrick previously wrote to the council warning that the plan “is an essential step to delivering the Oxfordshire Housing and Growth Deal” – a £215m agreement between the county’s local authorities and government tied to the delivery of 100,000 new homes by 2031.
Nationally, the government has said it wants every area to have a “suitably ambitious” local plan to tackle the housing crisis.
However, Mark Stone, chief executive of South Oxfordshire District Council, previously said that the local authority was committed to developing a “sound local plan”.
A spokesperson for the council said: “We can confirm the council received a letter from the secretary of state for housing, communities and local government addressed to the leader, Cllr Sue Cooper.
“The council is currently considering its options and will be providing a response in due course by the end of the month as requested.”