Consultation set to begin on Shropshire’s plan for 13,000 homes
Businesses and residents in Shropshire are set to be asked for their views on a planning document which could see a further 13,000 homes built in the county before 2036.
The Shropshire Local Plan is the county council’s blueprint for future development in Shropshire, and provides the starting point for planning decisions in the county.
The current plan covers the period 2006 to 2026. It sets out the planning policies that will guide future development, and the sites where houses will be built, during this period.
To reflect changes in national policy and to increase certainty, Shropshire Council is to carry out a partial review of the current Local Plan and extend it to cover the period up to 2036.
Under the existing Local Plan, 27,500 houses will be required between 2006 and 2026. By 2016, about 15,400 houses had been built.
The review of the Plan will ask whether an additional 11,000, 12,000 or 13,000 houses should be built between now and 2036.
Subject to approval by cabinet tomorrow, an eight-week consultation into the new plan will be carried out, ending on March 20.
Cllr Mal Price, Shropshire’s cabinet member for planning and housing, said: “The Local Plan review will provide an up-to-date and deliverable plan for Shropshire. This will help to maintain local control over planning decisions by ensuring that the adopted policies and proposals remain the starting point for decisions about development in Shropshire during the period to 2036.
“At this first stage, the review will focus on strategic issues and key areas of change, including options for the level and distribution of new housing and strategies for employment growth to 2036.
“The existing approach of focusing growth in Shropshire’s county town, market towns and key centres, whilst enabling some controlled development in rural areas to maintain local sustainability, will remain at the heart of the development strategy.”
Consultation responses will be used to inform the next stages of the review, and further consultation on a full draft of the revised Local Plan is due to be carried out in the early part of 2018.
