30-month-long process to start new Staffordshire local plan agreed

A Staffordshire council has agreed a 30-month-long process of starting a new local plan. However, the council is set to be abolished before it is even completed. Council leaders at East Staffordshire Borough Council said the new plan must be started by April 2027.

Recent changes in national planning policy have increased the number of homes needed to be built in the area. Before the changes, 417 homes were needed, now the target has increased to 644, an increase of 55 per cent.

The council has been given £108,474.57 to support the first stages of the preparation of a new local plan. The plan is expected to contain less policies and to identify sites where housing could be delivered.

The local plan would guide all development in East Staffordshire until 2043, and under current timelines would formally be adopted by the council in May 2029. Under planned local government reorganisation in Staffordshire all local authorities are set to be abolished and replaced by new unitary councils in 2028.

Naomi Perry, the planning manager at East Staffordshire Borough Council said: “New planning regulations have now been enacted which enable the council to commence the preparation of a new plan. The council is now required to prepare a new plan as the existing plan was adopted over five years ago.

“Since 2020 annual assessments have been undertaken, each concluding that the plan remains fit for purpose, however, under the new regulations a new plan must be commenced by April 2027. The recent planning regulations expect new style local plans to contain fewer policies than the existing plan and to identify land allocations, but rely on new national decision making policies and national standards for other policy areas.”