Have you helped shape first stage of a new West Suffolk Local Plan?

06 Jul 2026

More than 200 people have already taken the opportunity to give their views on what’s most important to them at the first stage on a new West Suffolk Local Plan.

West Suffolk Council is midway through a six-week consultation that will help identify local issues and priorities to shape the new local plan including how the council will plan to meet local housing, employment and infrastructure needs to 2045.

So far it has spoken directly to more than 190 residents at drop in events in Bury St Edmunds, Haverhill and Mildenhall.

And there’s more drop ins due to take place this week in Newmarket and Brandon before a final event in Clare on 18 July.

Cllr Frank Stennett, Cabinet Member for Planning said: “There’s still time for people to get involved in this very first stage on a new local plan for West Suffolk." 

“We know through the number of households on our housing register and the engagement work that fed into and shaped our housing strategy that more homes, including affordable housing, is needed.”

“And our ongoing engagement with businesses illustrates that land will be needed to support their ambitions for growth, delivering new jobs and skills as well as to encourage new businesses development including new start-ups in West Suffolk."

“But we also want people’s feedback on the different types of housing needed, the business sectors where they feel we need to focus our attention, the future of our town centres and high streets, the many challenges and opportunities that we need to collectively address, and much more. It’s great that more than 200 people have already taken part. We want everyone to grasp this chance to help Shape Tomorrow Together.”

West Suffolk Council was among the first councils in the country to up its affordable housing policy on greenfield sites with a requirement that 40 per cent of new homes be affordable. That policy is in its current local plan adopted in July last year.

Since then, the Government has revised housing need figures – for West Suffolk this means that rather than planning for the delivery of 765 homes a year, it needs to cater for closer to 1200.

The Government’s local plan making regulations required West Suffolk to formally begin work on the local plan in June this year. This is because the current local plan housing requirement is less than 80 per cent of the Government’s latest assessment of housing need for West Suffolk.

If the council doesn’t progress work on a new local plan, it won’t be able to continue to demonstrate a 5-year land supply, something that is crucial for West Suffolk and its communities to maintain a plan led approach and resist speculative development.  

With or without a local plan, new homes will still be built.

By planning positively for growth, the council can ensure a coordinated approach that avoids piecemeal development and ensures that necessary developer funds are secured towards critical infrastructure such as community facilities, education, health, and transport.

Planning for where new homes and employment can be built also provides the ability for the council and the communities it serves to say no to some of the speculative development that may otherwise come forward.

The national process for preparing local plans has also been changed to streamline the plan making process.

The first stage of the new local plan is a scoping consultation which runs from 9am 16 June to 5pm on 28 July 2026. It asks people for their views on what is important to them and what the local plan should contain, how they would like to be kept engaged going forward and consulted with during the preparation of the plan. The feedback received will help inform the first draft of the Local Plan to be published in spring 2027, as well as the development of a new community engagement strategy. The new local plan will take around 30 months to prepare, with adoption of the plan currently scheduled for May 2029.

To Shape Tomorrow Together visit https://westsuffolk.inconsult.uk/Scoping_Consultation_2026/consultationHome

West Suffolk Council is holding a number of drop in events to raise awareness of the consultation and provide an opportunity for residents to talk to planning officers. 
People do not have to attend an event to have your say. All of the events are open to any resident from across West Suffolk – they are not specifically about the area in which the drop in is being held. The table below details the remaining events.  
 

Date	Location	Time
Tuesday 7 July	Newmarket Market	9am to 3pm
Thursday 9 July	Brandon Market	8.30am to 1pm
Saturday 18 July	Clare Market	8.30am to 1.30pm

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