Local Plan How Many Houses?

You may have seen that the Labour Government wants to build, build, build and has set local authorities housing targets. We give you a brief update on the numbers. The current local plan runs 2011-2031. For the period from 2018 onwards the annual requirement for new homes under the plan is 663 dwellings. Government Plan Making https://www.gov.uk/guidance/plan-making

 The proposed new local plan would run 2024-2045. The housing number would be based on the government’s published standard method. This is 618 new homes per year. Over 21 years that makes a requirement of 12,978. We already have 9,766 homes deliverable by 2045 planned through Houlton, South West Rugby, Eden Park and other planning permissions. A further 1,000 homes would be built on small sites over the 21 years. This leaves a need to allocate sites for between 3,000 to 3,500 new homes (the Council will need to provide a buffer above the minimum target).

 The timetable for preparing the new plan is here: https://rugby.gov.uk/w/local-development-scheme but the headlines are 

(1) consultation on a draft plan in March 2025 Full Council decision for 8 week consultation 19th March Council

(2) pre-submission consultation in January 2026 

(3) submission for examination in June 2026 (4) adoption of plan by June 2027.

Liberal Democrats on the Council are leading the charge for a new country park and for greater use of solar panels along with environmental corridors Cllr Isabelle McKenzie (Rokeby & Overslade) has been championing on the environmental and climate change needs.