Milton Keynes residents encouraged to have their say on city growth for next 25 years

The Labour administration says it wants to prioritise more affordable family homes, infrastructure investment, protecting green space and job creation.

The MK City Plan 2050 will set out a preferred strategy for the delivery of the city’s growth, up until 2050 with sites being allocated for around 30,000 more homes, in addition to the 30,000 already given permission by Plan:MK.

The draft plan will be published for a 12-week period of public consultation and will be looking for local views on issues including:

• A proposal to ensure 40 per cent affordable family housing of all new previously undeveloped sites.
• An Infrastructure First policy to deliver maximum funding for the hospital, new health provision, new schools and community facilities.
• Protecting existing green spaces, and ruling out growth in rural Milton Keynes as it doesn’t meet the ability to deliver the required infrastructure for growth.
• Growing the city economy with a focus on high-tech jobs, a city centre university and Bletchley regeneration.
• Tackling climate change and improving sustainability.

Council leader Cllr Peter Marland explained: “We know that local young families need to be able to get on the housing ladder or have the option of an affordable home they can rent. We clear that on newly allocated undeveloped sites we want to see 40 per cent affordable family homes being built.

“However, we know that local people have concerns about the pressure that growth might put on existing services, and that is why we are also proposing an infrastructure first approach to growth to maximise the funding available for the hospital, new health provision, new schools and community facilities. We have ruled out allocating sites in rural areas such as West of Olney, MK North and in rural areas because the current infrastructure would not be able to cope with the growth.

“We also want to see Milton Keynes continue to be a national centre of economic growth, so we have proposed a laser-like focus on job creation, securing a university in CMK and regeneration of Bletchley as key priorities.”