Labour MPs have urged the Conservative leader of Buckinghamshire Council to ‘work with them’ rather than ‘speculating’ on their planning reforms.

Martin Tett claimed that 100,000 homes and a new town could be built in the Buckinghamshire over the next 20 years under Labour’s proposed changes to the ‘national planning policy framework’, the law councils must follow in planning.

The Labour MP for Wycombe Emma Reynolds told the Bucks Free Press: “I urge the council to work constructively with the government and respond in detail to the NPPF consultation.

“I don’t recognise the statistic used by the council leader about the number of homes as he’s making assumptions about the government’s plans.”

The Labour MP for Aylesbury Laura Kyrke-Smith added: “Buckinghamshire Council is being closely consulted on the NPPF.

“Buckinghamshire Council can, as other local authorities are regardless of political leadership, work constructively with the secretary of state and ministers at the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government, providing its feedback via the appropriate channels.”

Her fellow Labour MP Callum Anderson, who represents Buckingham and Bletchley, also urged Cllr Tett to be ‘constructive’ following the council leader’s remarks this week.

Anderson said: “I would really encourage Cllr Tett and his administration to engage constructively with the Government on the substance of the proposed reforms, rather than speculating about where any new towns will be located.”

The Labour MPs’ calls for a constructive dialogue with Tory-led Buckinghamshire Council come after Cllr Tett and his cabinet on Monday attacked Labour’s proposed changes to planning laws, which they said would see an ‘urban sprawl’ of new homes transform ‘beautiful’ Buckinghamshire.

Due to proposed changes to the way the need for homes is calculated, some 4,122 houses would be expected to be built in the council area each year – a 42 per cent increase on the current target of 2,912.

The council has said this new metric would mean 86,562 new homes would need to be built from 2024 to 2045, the period covered by its local plan.

Labour also plans to add a five per cent so-called ‘buffer’ to housing totals to account for fluctuations, which Cllr Tett said would take the figure of new homes in Bucks over the next 20 years to 90,000.

The council boss also said that Labour could build a new town in the council area under the party’s new ‘taskforce’ to look at building new towns of at least 10,000 homes.

Responding to his claims this week, Kyrke-Smith the new Labour government would take a ‘brownfield first approach’ and ensure people ‘shape housebuilding in their areas’.

She also claimed there had been too much ‘haphazard, incoherent’ development in Bucks under the previous Conservative government, with ‘unaffordable homes out of reach for too many local people’, built on high-quality Green Belt land, without the necessary infrastructure and services like GP surgeries.

She added: “The proposed changes to the National Planning Policy Framework seek to address this crisis head on.”

Anderson echoed her comments and added: “Buying a home and building roots is now out of reach for far too many local people.

“Labour is on the side of those with that aspiration and has a plan to tackle the housing crisis affecting thousands of families across Buckinghamshire.”

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