District Plan review underway

East Herts Council has started a review of the District Plan, with landowners invited to submit potential sites for housebuilding.

The East Herts District Plan was adopted in October 2018 and there is a statutory requirement to consider whether a review of the District Plan is required within five years from its adoption.

The District Plan aims to provide new homes, jobs, facilities and infrastructure across the District. It also contains policies that are used to determine planning applications.

Many factors can change during the lifetime of a plan, and these changes need to be incliuded in regular reviews. Local planning policies should be updated to incorporate the latest evidence and projections, best practice, updated national planning strategies, and new requirements of statutory consultees.

The first stage of the review is a Call for Sites. 

The Call for Sites is an opportunity for landowners, developers, agents, and site promoters to tell the Council about sites which they feel have the potential for development.

The Call for Sites is a process to assess locations that could potentially be brought forward for development in the future – submission of a site does not in any way confirm that it will be selected.

Councils must be able to demonstrate that they have an adequate supply of housing to meet their needs in both the short term (i.e., being able to identify a rolling 5-year supply) and in the longer term.