Issue - meetings

Decision

RESOLVED

1) To progress the review of the NNDC Local Plan in line with Government expectations and statute requirements.

2) To continue working to inform and influence the future production of a Spatial Development Strategy including engagement and collaborative work through the Norfolk Strategic Planning Framework.

Reason for the decision:

To maintain an up-to-date Local Plan and to comply with statutory requirements in order to provide appropriate planning policy and guidance for the district.

Cllr A Brown, Portfolio Holder for Planning & Enforcement, introduced this item. He explained that the report set out the next steps for the Council in terms of Local Plan making. The current Local Plan had been adopted on 17^th December 2025 under transitional arrangements where the adopted Plan’s housing requirement remained less than 80% of the local housing need. Consequently, the updated National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) required that such transitional Plans should address the shortfall in housing need and be brought forward under the revised plan-making system set out in the Levelling Up & Regeneration Act 2023 (LURA) as soon as the relevant provisions were brought into force. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) had since confirmed that NNDC was required to bring a Plan forward under the new Plan making system by the dates specified. These were 30^th June 2026, where the Council was required to have published a ‘notice of intention to commence Local Plan preparation’ and 31^st October 2026 whereby the authority was required to publish a ‘Gateway 1 self-assessment’.

Cllr Brown said that these deadlines were challenging – especially the June one as there was Easter and the County Council election in the interim.

The Chair invited members to speak:

Cllr C Cushing said that he agreed there was no choice but to proceed with the requirements that had been set out but he felt he needed to stress how ridiculous it was that there was an expectation that over 932 houses should be built in the district every year.  The projected population growth numbers for North Norfolk was less than 5000 in the coming years and the demand was simply not there. He spoke about the timeline for preparing a new Plan meant that there was likely to be a General Election shortly after completion and it was very likely that a new Government would change the requirements again. The Chair thanked Cllr Cushing for verbalising members’ frustrations.

He agreed that the Government’s expectations regarding housebuilding numbers were not reasonable and said that 300 homes a day would need to be built across the country to meet their overall target.

Cllr V Holliday said that she echoed Cllr Cushing’s concerns and said that she hoped there would be ‘principal residency’ as part of any new Local Plan, otherwise none of these new homes would be for local residents at all. She highlighted the importance of consultees in the Local Plan process – both statutory and non-statutory and suggested that they were notified early on that there could be an extra 450 new homes coming forward every year.

The Chair agreed with the point regarding engagement with consultees. He went onto speak about the approach taken in St Ives, regarding limiting the purchase of new houses to local residents only and how this was not working as effectively as hoped. In North Norfolk, with the introduction of the second homes premium there had been a modest reduction in second homes  ...  view the full minutes text for item 27