Context
The current Local Plan for South Kesteven was adopted in January 2020 and sets out the development strategy for growth of the District to 2036. The Inspector's final report on the current Local Plan (2011 - 2036) commits the Council to undertake an early review of the Local Plan from April 2020. The review enables necessary updates of evidence, including housing and employment need.
The Local Plan Review will set out the planning framework for the District over the next 20 years up to 2041 and will cover issues such as; housing provision, the economy, town centres, infrastructure provision and the environment. It will also set out policies by which planning applications will be determined, in addition to allocating land for housing, employment and retail uses.
Until the review has been undertaken and a new Local Plan is found sound and adopted by the Council, the current Local Plan (2011 - 2036) will continue to be the development plan for the District and used in determining planning applications.
On December 2022, the Government published a consultation on amendments to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). The consultation closed on 2 March and the government has indicated that the updated version of the NPPF will be published in due course. The Government is proposing a number of changes throughout the NPPF and there are significant amendments that relate to plan-making.
For the Council to fully consider the implications of these changes and incorporate amendments to ensure compliance with the proposed NPPF, the consultation on the Draft Local Plan which was due to take place in March has been delayed.
The Council's Local Development Scheme (LDS) is a project plan to inform the community and other partners what strategic planning documents are being prepared over the next three years. It identifies key milestones in their preparation, including the stages where documents will be made available for consultation. The revised Local Development was approved at Cabinet on 30 May 2023 and can be found at the following link;
SKDC Local Plan Review - Local Development Scheme 2023-2026To briefly outline the context within the LDS, a summary table has been produced below;
Local Plan Review Stage | Proposed Date |
Commencement of Document Preparation | Commenced: April 2020 |
Issues and Options + Call for Sites Consultation (Regulation 18) | Completed: 12 October - 23 November 2020 |
Draft Consultation on Local Plan Review ( Regulation 18) | Winter 2023/24 |
Pre Submission Consultation( Regulation 19 | Summer 2024 |
Submission to the Secretary of State (Regulation 22) | Winter 2024/25 |
Public Examination (Regulation 24) | Winter 2024/25 - Winter 2025/26 |
Inspector's Report (Regulation 25) | Winter 2025/26 |
Adoption (Regulation 25) | Spring 2026 |
Please note that all dates within the table are subject to change.
Previous Consultation Stages
Issues and Options ( Regulation 18)
Now Closed
From Monday 12th October 2020 to Monday 23rd November 2020 the Council held an Issues and Options consultation to inform the review of the Local Plan. This was the first opportunity for the local community to become involved in the preparation of the Local Plan review as it set out the scope of the review and key issues and options to be considered within the review. More information on the consutation can be found on the webpage below
Issues and Options Consultation WebpageCall for Sites ( Regulation 18)
Now Closed
As part of the Local Plan Review to 2041, The Council needs to establish what land is available for development within the District, and has therefore asked landowners, developers and other interested stakeholders to submit details of their proposed sites through a "Call for Sites process." Further information on submitted sites can be found at the link below;
Call For Sites Webpage