Planning Policy

Planning Policies are documents that help to decide how, where and when development in Horsham District takes place. These documents are used to help make decisions on planning applications and to plan the future needs of the district by assessing what changes are likely to happen and where.

The key Planning Policy document that a council must prepare is its Local Plan. Horsham District Council has recently prepared a new Local Plan to replace the current Horsham District Planning Framework (HDPF). This will be called the 'Horsham District Local Plan 2023-2040'.

Latest News: 27 February 2025 - The Local Development Scheme (LDS) 2025-2028 was approved by Cabinet on 26 February 2025.

3 February 2025 - The Inspector has informed us that he remains committed to writing to the Council as soon as he possibly can.  He has now indicated that this will not be until towards the end of February / early March at the earliest.  His response will be placed on the Local Plan Examination webpage in due course.

16 December 2024 - The Local Plan Inspector has published a letter which cancels the Local Plan hearings for the weeks of 17 December, 14 January and 21 January 2025.  A copy of his letter is published on the Latest News from Local Plan Examination webpage.  The Council has drafted a response to this letter: HDC Local Plan Examination Hearing Letter