East of England Local Plan and Housing Delivery Test Update

We are pleased to publish our January 2022 iteration of Boyer’s East of England Local Plan and Housing Delivery Test Update. The document is presented in a user-friendly, interactive PDF format and is a useful reference guide for the latest updates on all local authorities across the Eastern region. Click here to download it now.

 The document is informed by the latest Local Development Scheme for each authority area, as well as website updates and our own intelligence.

 A lot has happened in the past three months since our last update and some key headlines are summarised below:

 Tendring District Council adopted their Section 2 Local Plan on 25^th January 2022. 

• The Inspector’s Final Report is expected imminently for Brentwood, Castle Point, Colchester (Section 2), Epping Forest, North Hertfordshire and Ipswich.
• The examination into the Greater Norwich Local Plan (Broadland, Norwich and South Norfolk) is scheduled to start on 1^st February 2022.
• Following suspension of the Babergh and Mid Suffolk Joint Local Plan EiP in October 2021 the Councils are now undertaking further work in respect of settlement hierarchy, the spatial distribution of housing and the housing site selection process. They will be looking to progress a ‘Part 1’ local plan in 2022, with the ‘Part 2’ local plan to follow thereafter. 
• A report was published by St Albans City and District Council in January 2022 proposing a significant delay in adoption of the Local Plan to 2025/26 due to resourcing issues. The same report suggested that the Dacorum, Three Rivers and Hertsmere Local Plans would also be delayed. It is therefore expected that these authorities will not meet the Government deadline for all Council’s to have up-to-date Local Plans in place by December 2023.
• Hertsmere Borough Council confirmed at a Full Council meeting last week that they will scrap their draft Local Plan just four months after publication due to opposition from residents about the amount of green belt land proposing release

 In addition, current consultations include: 

• East Cambridgeshire Single Issue Review (Reg 18) until 7^th February;
• Maldon District Local Development Plan Review 2021+ (Reg 18) until 14^th March; and
• North Norfolk Local Plan 2016-2036 (Reg 19) until 28^th February.

To download the document click here.

Since our Colchester office launched the East of England update in January 2021, we have received excellent feedback from our clients and contacts. We are currently exploring the idea of rolling out this quarterly update for each of our Boyer regions and would love to hear your thoughts on this. Did you know, we also have offices in London, Cardiff, Bristol, Wokingham and the Midlands?