Horsham District Council will formally begin work on a new-style Horsham District Local Plan, in line with new national plan-making requirements by the government.
The Horsham District Council Cabinet Member for Planning and Infrastructure Cllr Ruth Fletcher has formally agreed the preparation of the new-style Local Plan which will be called Horsham District 2045.
The government has introduced significant reforms to the national planning system which came into force in March 2026. These changes include a change to the regulations governing Local Plan development. The intention of the new regulations is to restructure preparation, and to reduce the amount of time spent on preparing plans to a set 30-month timetable so existing timetables need to be revised substantially.
The new planning system dictates that as a council we need to start work on the development of the new-style Local Plan immediately. To facilitate this, the Council will launch what is known as a scoping consultation this will give residents, businesses and stakeholders an opportunity to comment on what the new plan should cover and how they would like to be involved as it is developed.
This early engagement will help the Council set the overall direction of the plan including what evidence will be needed to support it. The scoping consultation will open on 30 June and run until 28 July.
Commenting on the new-style planning system, Horsham District Council Cabinet Member for Planning and Infrastructure Cllr Ruth Fletcher said: “As part of its planning reforms, the government is now requiring Horsham District Council along with some 38 other local authorities in England, to produce a new-style Local Plan.
The government’s proposed timescales are challenging and for our council this will mean that we must start consulting on the new-style plan just as we are going out with a main modifications consultation on our 2023-2040 Local Plan. We still expect to adopt this Local Plan early in the new year.”
Further details on how communities, partners and stakeholders can get involved in the early stages of preparing the new Horsham District 2045 Local Plan will be published over the coming months.
It should be noted that the commencement of the preparation of the new-style Horsham District 2045 Local Plan will be happening at the same time as the Council’s consultation on main modifications to its Horsham District 2023-2040 Local Plan that is still undergoing examination by the Planning Inspector.