In an email communication from Central Bedfordshire Council in December, it said:

"We are temporarily pausing the process of publishing our draft Local Plan for consultation, in anticipation of the Government’s long-awaited Housing White Paper.

"We had planned to consult next month but the White Paper, originally expected to accompany November’s Autumn Statement, is now expected to be published during the same timeframe. Deferring this consultation will therefore allow us to fully consider its implications.

"Whilst we cannot be certain what these implications will be for Central Bedfordshire, we are aware that there is the potential for significant changes in relation to housing numbers and other matters relating to the preparation of local plans. Publishing a plan without a proper understanding of these could mean we have to revisit parts of the process, leading to further delay.

"In this context, we have concluded – as have other local authorities across the country – that it would be inadvisable to continue with the planned release of our draft Local Plan next month.

"However, we do regard this only as a pause in our process and we remain confident that we will still be able to deliver a draft plan in 2017."

This is an update to our report in our recent Bedfordshire Matters magazine, which stated that we expected the draft Local Plan to be out for consultation in January.