Herefordshire Council Local Plan Consultation
Herefordshire Council has started a consultation on its new Local Plan to 2041, the consultation runs until 28th February 2022. Our article looks at the issues that are being actively considered by the Council and the implications the consultation has for housebuilding in terms of how many houses and where they are being proposed.
The Council is anticipating an overall 17,000 home target which equates to 850 houses per year up to 2041. Taking into account existing permissions, the plan will therefore have to allocate land for an additional 11,200 homes.
What growth options are being considered?
To accommodate the new housing target, the Plan proposes a series of growth options to be considered, these are as follows:
- Focus on Market Towns and Rural Based Growth
- Focused Growth across Market Towns and Hereford
- Leominster as a Growth Town
- Ross-on-Wye as a Growth Town
- Ledbury as a Growth Town
- A new Settlement with focused growth in Leominster and Bromyard
Varying levels of housebuilding are proposed at each of the above identified locations across the County. In the rural areas, the Rural Based Growth option could see the County’s rural hinterland having to accommodate up to 6,500 new homes. The Consultation looks at the options for achieving this, which are
- Dispersed approach across settlements
- Focus on larger settlements
- Focus growth on rural hubs
- Focus growth within settlements outside AONBs and conservation areas.
What does this mean for landowners and housebuilders?
For landowners and housebuilders, this indicates how much housing is planned and where it is likely to be provided and presents the first vital insight of the Council’s thinking and raises a major opportunity to promote land for housing development.
McLoughlin Planning has been caring for the land interests of our clients for over 20 years and has successfully secured housing allocations for many clients following well timed and expertly executed submissions. For more information on Development Planning and Land Promotion services please visit this link. If you would like to contact us to start a conversation about your land give us a call on 01242 895008 or email Nathan.mcloughlin@mplanning.co.uk.