Issue - meetings

Purpose of report

To recommend that the Council approves the publication of a Regulation 18 Local Plan - Proposed Housing and Mixed-Use Site Allocations consultation for a period of eight weeks.

Decision

That Cabinet:

1. Approves the consultation of the Regulation 18 Local Plan - Proposed Housing and Mixed-use Site Allocations (Appendix A of the report) in accordance with the timetable contained within the Council’s Local Development Scheme (approved by Cabinet February 2025).

2. Delegate authority to the Assistant Director (Planning and Growth), in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Planning, to make any minor amendments to the document (in order to correct matters of fact or aid clarity to the reader) prior to its publication for consultation purposes.

Alternative options considered and rejected

The alternative of not publishing a consultation on a Regulation 18 Proposed Housing Land Allocation consultation had been discounted. Whilst the Council had already discharged Regulation 18 of the Town and Country Planning Act (Local Planning) (England) 2012 by publishing the Issues & Options and Draft Local Plan consultations, it was best practice to keep the community informed and to seek further comment, as the plan evolved.

Publishing the consultation would also ensure that the Local Plan stayed on track and adhered to the timetable set out in the Council’s Local Development Scheme.

Reasons for the decision

The primary reason for the decision was to ensure the Council had an up-to-date legally compliant Local Plan and met the agreed published timetable.

A year ago South Kesteven District Council was at an advanced stage of reviewing the Local Plan. There was then a General Election in July 2024 when both of the biggest parties promised to get Britain building again. The new government promised to build 1.5 million houses. Government published a new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), with big changes to how housing need was calculated. The changes made by national government had substantially increased South Kesteven District’s annual housing need from 701 (as published through 2024 Draft Local Plan) to 886 dwellings per year, an uplift of 185 dwellings per year. This meant that the Local Plan’s minimum housing need was 17,720 dwellings across the plan period (2023-2043).

The Planning Policy Manager gave a presentation to Cabinet, highlighting the following points:

• The Council was on track to publish its Regulation 19 document this year. The introduction of the new NPPF had forced the Council to take a step back to Regulation 18 due to the need to find additional sites. Consultation on the new Regulation 18 Local Plan was scheduled to start in early July 2025.
• If any members of the public wished to be added to the Local Plan database, they were to contact the Council. All those on the consultation database would be contacted directly when consultation started. The consultation would also be publicised through the usual communications channels and social media.
• Over the plan period of 20 years, up to 2043, there was now a need to build an additional 3700 homes.
• The Planning  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7