Local Development Plans guide development for councils and local authorities, and map out an area’s long-term future. They aim to deliver growth to where it is needed and help to demonstrate the positive impacts development can have on local communities. In the last part of our series of land blogs, we’re going to look at how Local Development Plans and planners are shaping our communities and building the communities of the future.
Space for expansion through local development plans
Local Development Plans, or Local Plans, are implemented by councils to demonstrate how areas – from cities and towns, or rural villages – will be permitted to be developed. They provide guidance on where new houses can be built and which areas of land can be built on. Local plans take a number of factors into account – such as local need for new housing, a need for growth, opportunities for expansion, and the availability of spaces to develop. For Cheshire West and Chester for example, ‘in line with legislation (‘15C Levelling Up and Regeneration Act’), Local Plans will set out the amount, type and location of – and timetable for – development. The Local Plan will also include other policies in relation to the use or development of land including infrastructure requirements.’
Meeting our needs
This approach ensures that developments are not permitted where they will place an undue burden on infrastructure – this is particularly true of aspects such as traffic on roads, but also things like utility capability, such as sewerage and water supply, or broadband coverage. Feasibility studies and surveys will have to be carried out, so that every consideration is taken in how and where land is developed. In this way, villages can be expanded, as their county boundaries grow and populations rise.
In recent years we’ve seen some building in rural areas, to meet an increased demand for housing outside urban environments. The rise in remote working and hybrid working, post-pandemic have had some impact on this. New policies have been developed to account for these changes and also to tailor developments to meet modern needs. Infrastructure has been key to this, but it also feeds into the new government’s pledge to build. So Local Plans are shaping our villages and towns and our futures in all kinds of positive ways.
Suitability and sustainability
The suitability of land for development is obviously a key factor in which locations are opened up for purchase, planning and building. In urban areas, aspects such as infrastructure will be much easier to integrate and shape around developments. But rural developments can bring with them a whole range of challenges and hurdles that will need to be navigated.
The condition of the land is one of the most obvious – whether the land is prone to flooding, for example. This may mean that work will have to be carried out to make the land safe, with flood defences or drainage diversions for instance. Access and infrastructure can also be challenges that need surmounting, but with careful work and planning – new access entrances, wider infrastructure improvements – these can be solved.
Councils have information regarding planning policy available on their website – Cheshire West and Chester’s is accessible here – and include a wide range of planning information, such as neighbourhood planning, a Brownfield land register, and self-build and custom house building register, and a design code. Aspects such as sustainability are also having to be taken into consideration too, so that the newest developments maximise the most modern thinking and technology, both in their construction and their lifetime.
If you own land, in Cheshire or close by, that you think might be suitable for development, please get in touch with us.
