Date published: 2025-02-07 | Category: Delivering for local residents, Local Plan, Planning, Preparing for the Future
Bath & North East Somerset Council is re-launching conversations with key stakeholders on the resetting of the local plan and call for sites for future housing and employment development.
The ‘Resetting of the Bath and North East Somerset Local Plan and District Wide Spatial Strategy’, which was published online earlier this week, explains why the Local Plan needs to be reset and what that means, and outlines some broad approaches to accommodating new housing, employment development and supporting infrastructure across the district. It also marks the re-launch of conversations and working with key stakeholders, particularly those representing local communities.
Councillor Matt McCabe, Cabinet Member for Built Environment, Housing and Sustainable Development, gave the go ahead for publication of the document in a single member decision.
Bath & North East Somerset Council’s Local Plan Options document, which was consulted on last year, was based on planning for around 14,500 homes by 2042. Under the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) the government’s revised housing figures increase the B&NES housing requirement by 105% from 717 per annum to 1,471 (or around 29,000 over a twenty-year period). We also need to assess what this means for economic growth and providing space for new jobs.
The resetting document outlines district-wide approaches that could function as a focus in considering locations for additional development to help meet those new housing targets and need for employment space.
Alongside the update document the council is running another call for sites, asking people to suggest potential sites that could be considered for development for housing and economic uses.
Councillor Matt McCabe said: “We are pleased to be able to move forward with the reset of the Local Plan and will be working closely with parish and town councils and local stakeholders to look at how the places in which they live could change and for potential new development sites to accommodate the significant uplift in the housing numbers that we need to deliver. It is important to consider carefully where best to put development like new homes, businesses, schools, health facilities and green spaces to make sure places continue to work for the people who live there as well as protecting the environment and lowering carbon emissions.”
A full public consultation on additional options will take place later this year.
The amended programme for preparing the reset Local Plan is, as required by the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, set out in the council’s Local Development Scheme which was published and came into effect in December 2024.
Visit the council website for the latest information on the Local Plan or watch a video on our YouTube channel that explains how the proposed revisions will impact the Local Plan.
Sign up to the council’s planning policy mailing list to receive updates on the Local Plan and other planning policy news as it happens.
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