From Braintree District Council
Read more about the Local Plan at https://www.braintree.gov.uk/localplanreview
We’re in the early stages of reviewing the council’s Local Plan, a document that guides development and manages growth in the Braintree district.
The current Local Plan is designed to run until 2033 but has to be reviewed and updated, if necessary, at least every five years.
The updated Local Plan will look at growth options post 2033 through to 2041.
The story so far…
The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) was updated by central government in 2024 and includes presumption in favour of sustainable development. It also required authorities to significantly boost their supply of housing. For us, our mandatory housing target is 1,115 new homes a year.
To start the Local Plan review process, we held a call for sites exercise in April 2024 where developers, landowners etc can put forward potential sites for development. This isn’t just housing but also employment, commercial, public green spaces, community and education facilities, as well as land they would like to see protected or green infrastructure, and activity such as biodiversity net gain.
In July 2024, we held an initial early engagement exercise to gather views on what people would like considered in the updated Local Plan and received more than 400 responses.
We then held our Issues and Options consultation in January 2025 asking for your views and suggestions on the vision and policies in the Local Plan, and we received over 400 comments. We’re now in the process of going through each one, using this insight to help inform the final draft Local Plan document.
What is happening now and what happens next?
We’re now in the process of going through each comment made from the latest consultation, using this insight to help inform the final draft Local Plan document.
The sites put forward from the call for sites are being assessed to determine whether they are suitable, available and achievable for allocation.
No decisions or recommendations have been made on these sites yet and they will be referred to our Local Plan Sub-Committee meetings due to start in May.
We will ask for your views later this year on the draft document, which will include the proposed sites where new homes, jobs and other facilities could be located.
Keep updated on the Local Plan review via this newsletter, on social media, and on our website at https://www.braintree.gov.uk/localplanreview