Andy Munns
Wiltshire Council’s Cabinet has endorsed the Local Plan today (Tuesday, 11th July) so that Full Council can now consider it on 18 July, before a public consultation later in the autumn.
Around 1100 homes could be built in and around Salisbury over the next 15 years or so across seven allocated sites.
The Local Plan will set out the vision and framework for housing, infrastructure and land for employment growth for the next 15 years and is Wiltshire’s most important place-shaping document.
The document has been in development since 2017 and has been through several stages of engagement, consultation and changes based on evidence and feedback from communities, developers and businesses across Wiltshire.
The revised Plan features increased environmental protections, including a mandate that all houses must be zero carbon, boosting small-scale energy generation such as solar, and increasing biodiversity net gain from 10% to 20%. All new developments must also have cycling and walking connections.
The Plan also requires 40% of all new greenfield housing developments of 10 homes or more to be affordable, with greater flexibility to make it easier to provide affordable housing in villages where there is clearly identified demand, but those developments will still need to be proportionate to the size of a village.
Cllr Nick Botterill, Cabinet Member for Strategic Planning, said: “This a ground-breaking Local Plan that far exceeds anything we’ve done before in terms of sustainability and biodiversity.
“Since the last consultation in 2021, we have reassessed the scale of development required and reduced the number of houses to be built until 2038 to ensure that we’re not building more homes than we need to.
“We have also maximised the number of brownfield sites in the Plan to help protect as much of our countryside as we can.
“We recognise that there will be some controversial elements to the Plan. For example, the Plan will allow limited development in small villages, with at least 40% affordable housing to ensure that we can keep young people in the villages they grew up in. Our larger villages will also have a role to play in providing homes for our communities. These homes will be built by 2038, in some cases in accordance with Neighbourhood Plans.
“It has taken many years of consultation, evidence gathering and listening to feedback to get to this point, and the Plan will be considered by Full Council next week, before a public consultation in the autumn. The Plan will be examined by an independent Planning Inspector in 2024.
“We have committed to an effective Local Plan that delivers sustainable growth for Wiltshire in our Business Plan, and we look forward to giving residents, businesses, communities and other stakeholders the final opportunity to have their say in the public consultation later in the autumn – we’ll have more details on how people can get involved soon.”
When the dates are confirmed, the council will publicise and let communities know of the autumn consultation. Once the public consultation is complete and all comments have been considered, the Plan will be examined by an independent Planning Inspector before it is adopted.
To read the full Cabinet report, people should go to: https://cms.wiltshire.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=141&MId=14748
