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Planning

Planning

Local Plan Update

Local Plan Update

The Preferred Options Draft Local Plan to 2046 consultation is now live and will close on Wednesday 17 December 2025 at 11.59pm.

For more information visit the Preferred Options page. 

On 24 January 2023, Huntingdonshire District Council's Cabinet agreed to the preparation of a full update to the adopted Local Plan which will set out a plan for how the district will grow over future decades.

This will include starting the process of producing new local evidence and opportunities for public engagement and feedback as the plan progresses.

What is a Local Plan?

A Local Plan sets out a plan for future sustainable development in the district. It performs two specific roles:

  • It identifies key areas of land for development to deliver the homes, jobs and services needed in the district, and

  • Includes policies against which all planning applications are considered.

The Local Plan is the document by which all development in the district is judged, it provides the basis for what can happen, where it can happen and when it can happen.

Why does the Local Plan need to be updated?

The council's current Local Plan to 2036 was adopted on 15 May 2019 identifying sufficient land for new homes, jobs, facilities, infrastructure, and open spaces to meet known needs.

Town and Country Planning Regulations state that the local planning authority must review it every five years starting from the date of adoption. Additionally, planning legislation has changed nationally so updating the adopted Local Plan is key to ensure it reflects the priorities of the district and local communities and legislation.

The Local Plan alongside Neighbourhood Plans and the Minerals and Waste Local Plan will continue to be used to determine planning applications until the updated Local Plan is completed.

Local Development Scheme

The Local Development Scheme [PDF, 0.6MB]was first approved by Cabinet on 21 March 2023, to accompany preparation and set out the scope of work for the Local Plan Update.

The Local Development Scheme was updated and approved at Cabinet on 11 February 2025 before being submitted to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

It provides a summary of the plan-making process and an indicative timetable highlighting engagement opportunities to be offered during preparation of the Local Plan Update.

Frequently asked questions

We have held a number of public consultations which can be found on the Completed Consultations page. 

We listened to your comments and finalised the Land Availability Assessment Methodology [PDF, 0.8MB] [PDF, 0.8MB]. This was used to assess the sites that have been submitted and conduct sustainability appraisals of the sites. The final documents, Land Availability Assessments and Sustainability Appraisal. The consultation closed on 27 November 2024.

We have analysed comments from the Issues consultations to help formulate priorities for the Local Plan and develop options. This can be seen in our Further Issues and Options consultation document which closed on 27 November 2024. 

We updated our Sustainability Appraisal with new information and asked for your views, consultation closed on 27 November 2024.

We have produced a number of evidence based documents which can be found at Evidence Library webpage. We have used these, and your comments from the Further Issues and Options consultations to produce a Preferred Options Draft Local Plan to 2046, which we are currently consulting on. 

We have produced a Statement of Consultation which acts as a record of the consultation and public engagement carried out as part of the development of a Local Plan. It includes summaries of the main issues raised by the public and statutory consultees, how comments have been taken into account, and any actions the council has taken as a result.

The Call for Sites is a process whereby the council asks developers, landowners, agents and local communities to suggest possible sites wholly or partially within Huntingdonshire that might have potential for development.

It gives the council an idea of what land is available to help inform potential areas for growth in the district.

We asked about sites which might be suitable and available for the following:

  • Housing, including specialist housing such as that for elderly people

  • Commercial uses such as industry, retail, commercial leisure and logistics

  • Infrastructure uses such as education, health, transport and renewable energy

  • Open space uses such as parks, areas for biodiversity net gain and land to safeguard from flooding.

Submission of a site to the council does not guarantee that it will be allocated or that it will gain planning permission.

All Call for Sites consultations are now closed.

The first opportunity to comment on sites was through our Land Availability Assessments consultation which closed on 27 November 2024. Additional sites submitted 1 August 2024 and 31 January 2025 have been assessed and are now available for comment between 23 April and 4 June 2025. Please go to our consultation portal for further information. 

You can also view the sites that have been submitted so far by looking at our interactive map and spreadsheet.

The selection of sites has been based on a number of additional factors such as a chosen growth strategy, a final settlement hierarchy and evidence-based documents such as transport studies, strategic flood risk assessments, water cycle studies, employment land studies, climate change reports etc. 

The Preferred Options Draft Local Plan to 2046 consultation shows the Councils preferred sites for development which you can comment on by visiting the Preferred Options webpage.

No, our Call for Sites closed on 31 January 2025.

If you want to progress a site ahead of the Local Plan you will need to do so by way of a planning application.

The planning application will be subject to consultation and will be considered on its own merits against the current development plan and material considerations. It should be noted that submitting your site through the call for sites does not guarantee that it will be allocated, or that it will gain planning permission.

To find out more about the pre-application process or submitting a planning application visit our planning webpages.

The Preferred Options Draft Local Plan to 2046 consultation is now live, go to the Preferred Options page to comment before 11:59pm on 17 December 2025.

View our Local Development Scheme for more information.

If you have any further questions, please contact us at local.plan@huntingdonshire.gov.uk

Our Statement of Community Involvement (SCI) sets out how we will engage with the community on planning matters.

We will provide updates via our social media accounts.

We will inform town, parish and district councillors in the district so that they can cascade information to their local community where this may be possible. Other methods may include, posters, leaflets, exhibitions and press releases.

It must be noted that the actual methods used may differ depending on the purpose of the engagement exercise and the target audience. We will ensure that government regulation is complied with as an absolute minimum. In the first instance, electronic methods of consultation and engagement will be used.

Go to Preferred Options page to find out the dates for our public exhibitions/ drop in sessions where you can view the paper copies of the consultation documents.  

Neighbourhood Plans add valuable local scale policy to help with decision-making on planning applications.

All Neighbourhood Plans are required to broadly align with the Development Plan.

Neighborhood plans are required to comply with the strategic policies within Huntingdonshire's Development Plan. If there is a conflict between policies in the Local Plan or the Neighbourhood Plan the most recently adopted one will take precedence.

Approval to commence an update to the Local Plan was granted on 24 January 2023. The preferred options draft local plan is currently out at consultation, it is advised that any town or parish council wishing to commence a neighbourhood plan should consider the strategic elements of this in preparation of their plan. 

If a new Neighbourhood Plan is approved before the Local Plan Update is completed, the town or parish council may wish to consider updating their Neighbourhood Plan afterwards.