Somerset's new Local Plan won't be completed until the spring of 2029 – one year later than originally intended.

A Local Plan allocates sites across a given local authority area for new housing, employment growth, protected green spaces and necessary amenities, such as new schools, doctors' surgeries, railway stations and village halls.

Somerset Council inherited all the Local Plans of its predecessor councils when it officially replaced them on April 1, and planning decisions can still be taken on the basis of these policies.

The council originally announced in September 2023 that its new Local Plan would be approved and in effort from March 2028 – something which was part of the government's conditions for the new unitary authority being created.

But the council has now confirmed that the Local Plan won't now be adopted until March 2029 – meaning it will have to rely for longer on potentially outdated proposals to prevent unwanted, speculative development across the county.

The new Local Plan will cover the whole of the Somerset Council area, and is designed to bring together and harmonise the following existing plans:

• Mendip Local Plan Part I (which covers Frome, Glastonbury, Shepton Mallet, Street, Wells and the neighbouring villages)
• Mendip Local Plan Part II (which provides additional sites in these settlements)
• Sedgemoor Local Plan (which covers Bridgwater, Burnham-on-Sea, Cheddar, Highbridge, North Petherton and the neighbouring villages)
• Taunton Deane Core Strategy (which covers Taunton, Wellington, Wiveliscombe and the neighbouring villages)
• West Somerset Local Plan (which covers Minehead, Watchet, Williton and the neighbouring villages)
• South Somerset Local Plan (which covers Chard, Crewkerne, Ilminster, Wincanton, Yeovil and the neighbouring villages)
• Somerset Mineral Plan (which determines how and where minerals may be quarried or otherwise extracted)
• Somerset Waste Core Strategy (which covers household waste recycling centres and similar facilities)

The only part of the Somerset Council area which will not be subject to the new Local Plan is the Exmoor National Park, which has its own Local Plan.

Until the new Somerset Local Plan is approved by the Planning Inspectorate (following numerous rounds of consultation and a public inquiry), the existing plans remain in force and are legally binding.

However, certain parts of these plans may be accorded less weight if the relevant former district cannot demonstrate a five-year housing land supply – meaning sizeable developments could be approved even if they conflict with other planning policies to meet housing need.

The council's current lack of a five-year housing land supply has been exacerbated by the government raising housing targets (under its pledge to deliver 1.5 million new homes in the current parliament) and the ongoing phosphates crisis (where additional mitigation must be put in place by developers to prevent damage to the Somerset Levels and Moors).

The revised timetable for creating the new Local Plan was announced at a meeting of the council's planning and transport policy sub-committee in Taunton on Tuesday morning (February 11).

The council's planning team began initial evidence gathering in April 2023 and has created a 'statement of community involvement' – which lays out how residents and relevant organisations will be consulted in putting the plan together.

The council will continue to gather evidence and carry out "early engagement" with key stakeholders until the end of this year, with a draft Local Plan going out to public consultation in April 2026.

The feedback from this consultation will then be incorporated, and the final draft will be published in October 2027, before being submitted to the Planning Inspectorate after further feedback by January 2028.

The appointed inspector will then have until February 2029 to review the Local Plan, with the possibility of public hearings being staged to allow residents to make their case for any final modifications.

The inspector will publish their final report, with any such modifications in February 2029, meaning the new Local Plan can finally be approved by the council and become legally binding before the end of March 2029.

Councillor Mike Rigby, portfolio holder for economic development, planning and assets, said: "The combination of nutrient neutrality and the government's uprating of the housing targets has left us in some difficulty regarding our housing land supply.

"We will end up with something which will have considerable weight in dealing with planning applications, and we are moving as quickly as we can on this."

Part of the delay in the delivery of the Local Plan has been caused by the need to update the Mendip Local Plan Part II following a successful judicial review.

The amended plan – which includes the allocation of several new housing sites – was submitted to the Planning Inspectorate in September 2024, and is expected to be adopted by the council in July.

The council has warned that other factors could lead to further delays in the delivery of the new Local Plan – including the scope of the government's planning reforms, its position on phosphate mitigation, and its staff being occupied by the delivery of other major projects, such as the Gravity gigafactory and various regeneration schemes across the county.