West Suffolk Local Plan recommend for final stage of consultation

12 Dec 2023

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

The meeting of West Suffolk Council will be asked on Tuesday (19) to approve the local plan going out to a third stage of consultation early next year.

The new local plan will allocate sites for 5,211 new homes alongside 9,075 homes that already have planning permission and a windfall allowance of 1,200 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 of the plan also includes policies to deliver more affordable homes as well as sustainable housing through measures including solar panels on roofs wherever practically possible. If adopted, the local plan will also require a proportion of new homes to be more accessible, so that they can be adapted to people’s changing health needs that allows them to stay longer living in their own homes which is better both for them and their families and reduces the impact on health and social care.  Policies also include introducing space standards for rooms and gardens for all new houses as well as access to additional open space for flats. 

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

The local plan also makes provision for 86 hectares for employment growth enabling the council to help support the expansion of existing local companies, as well as the creation of new businesses, and attracting new businesses to the area, all to the benefit of the local West Suffolk economy.

By allocating the land for much needed housing and employment 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 several stages of public consultation that a draft local plan must go through in its preparation. The draft West Suffolk Local Plan has already been shaped by the first stage issues and options public consultation in 2020, and the preferred options consultation in 2022. 
The submissions stage draft builds on the evidence from hundreds of representations received in these two previous rounds of public consultation. 

This third round of consultation will form 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: “At the heart of this plan are the people that we are elected to represent. Through this local plan we are looking to deliver more affordable and sustainable housing that can cater and adapt to people’s changing needs.

“We are looking to ensure the supply of good quality housing for our growing communities so that children and grandchildren can choose to stay in the area where they grew up and find a home of their own. 

“The local plan allocates land for employment growth ensuring existing business can expand and retain jobs in our area as well as encouraging the growth of new businesses and attracting others to our area. All of this is crucial for the future success of our local economy.

“This latest draft builds on the evidence from the first two consultations as well as the insight and input from councillors across the political landscape who have worked through the detail with me in a working group. 

“I believe we have a strong and robust draft local plan ready for consultation and I look forward to discussing it with my Council colleagues at our meeting next week.”

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