Cabinet to discuss next stage of West Suffolk Local Plan

28 Nov 2023

The next stage of the West Suffolk Local Plan which will guide how and where new homes and employment will be built to the year 2040, is to be discussed by Cabinet.

The West Suffolk Local Plan will allocate sites for 5,211 new homes alongside 9,075 homes that already have planning permission and a windfall allowance of 1200 homes. The total number it needs to deliver over the plan period is 13,702 but the local plan deliberately over allocates to allow for flexibility over the plan period.

The latest draft plan has policies to deliver more affordable homes and sustainable housing through measures including solar panels on roofs wherever practically possible. If adopted, the local plan will require new homes to be more accessible, built to be adaptable to people’s changing health needs so that they can stay longer living in their own homes which is not only better for them and their families, but also reduces the impact on health and social care.

Once adopted, the local plan will ensure funding from developers is secured to pay for infrastructure such as money toward education provision and roads.

The local plan also makes provision for 86 hectares for employment growth.

By allocating land for much needed housing for West Suffolk’s growing communities, the local plan also protects other areas such as the countryside from harmful, speculative development, and it ensures that residents and elected councillors, continue to have a public voice and a say on planning applications submitted to the council.

The Government sets out the several stage of public consultation that a draft local plan must go through. The draft West Suffolk Local Plan completed its first stage of public consultation in 2020, on the issues and options followed by the preferred options consultation in 2022.

West Suffolk Council’s Cabinet will meet next Tuesday (5 December) to discuss the third draft of the plan – the submissions stage draft, which builds on the evidence from hundreds of representations received in two previous rounds of public consultation. 

Cabinet will be asked to recommend to a meeting of the Council on 19 December, that it approves the submissions stage draft going out to consultation.

That consultation which would take place early next year, is different to the two previous rounds in that it will form more of a legal test of the plan to check it ahead of submitting to the Secretary of State. 

A Government appointed planning inspector will then hold an examination in public, before the plan finally comes back to council to adopt.

Cllr Jim Thorndyke, Cabinet Member for Planning, said: “Our communities and populations are growing. As people’s children or grandchildren grow up, they will need a place to live. The local plan will also ensure a good supply of housing to meet predicted housing and employment growth in West Suffolk.

“It’s not just about housing. The local plan allocates sites for employment growth. This is important not only in terms of providing land to expand for existing businesses helping retain jobs in our area, but also to encourage the growth of new businesses and attract others to our area all for the benefit of our local economy.

“This submissions stage draft builds on the evidence from the first two consultations. We have also had invaluable input from councillors across the political landscape who have worked through the detail with me in a working group. As a result, I believe that we have strong and robust draft local plan to put forward for consultation.”

Subject to both Cabinet and Council’s agreement next month, the submissions stage draft of the West Suffolk Local Plan will go out to consultation early next year.

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