New Local Plan

The North West Leicestershire Local Plan was adopted on 21 November 2017. It sets out a strategy for delivering the homes, jobs and infrastructure needed in the district between 2011 and 2031.

Policy S1 of the plan says that we would start a review within three months of adoption. The Partial Review has now been completed and we are working on our new Local Plan.  

New Local Plan 

Now that the Council has a clear steer regarding future development requirements, particularly in respect of housing, the next step in the preparation of a new Local Plan is to determine which sites should be proposed to be allocated. Officers have been assessing all those sites included as part of the Strategic Housing and Economic Land Availability Assessment (SHELAA) to determine which sites should be recommended as allocations. This has included liaison with County Highways and all sites have also been assessed in terms of sustainability. It has become clear, however, that more work is needed before we will be in a position to make recommendations on preferred allocations.

Officers are reviewing the Local Plan timetable to take account of (amongst other matters):

• the need to do further work in respect of assessing potential housing and employment sites in view of the scale of growth agreed by the Council, including transport modelling
• the need to get a better understanding of implications of the Freeport proposals in respect of infrastructure and other local impacts
• the need to address implications of changes in national policy, such as biodiversity net gain and local evidence (e.g. provision for gypsies and travellers)
• Ongoing work with partner authorities to address the possible need for large scale warehousing

The intention is to publish a revised timetable early in the New Year, but it is currently anticipated that a decision on potential allocations will be taken in summer 2023.

In the meantime, the remaining responses to the consultation we undertook between January and March 2022 are scheduled to be discussed at the Local Plan Committee on 21 February 2023.

What has happened so far?

We have undertaken a number of consultations. More information can be found on the New Local Plan – progress so far page.

We are also in the process of updating various parts of our Evidence Base.

We are also undertaking a Sustainability Appraisal.

What is the timetable for the New Local Plan?

We are currently reviewing the Local Development Scheme and will publish it once it is finalised.

Local Plan Consultation Database

Please note: If you wish to be kept informed of progress on the new Local Plan, you can email us at planning.policy@nwleicestershire.gov.uk with your name, organisation (if applicable), postal address and email and we can then keep you up to date with future consultations.