Cornwall need a New Local Plan
Why does Cornwall need a New Local Plan?
Cornwall needs a new Local Plan because the current one is no longer sufficient to meet new, higher housing targets set by the government, and its policies are aging. The existing plan is also being updated to incorporate recent changes, such as the declaration of a climate emergency and a shift in transport philosophy to prioritize community needs over car-centric growth.
- Housing targets have increased:
The government’s standard method for calculating housing needs has changed, requiring Cornwall to plan for 4,421 new homes per year instead of the 2,707 in the existing plan. The current plan cannot meet this new requirement, meaning some of its policies are now considered “out of date”.
- Age of the plan:
Since the current plan is more than five years old, the council must be able to demonstrate that it remains “up to date” and can meet the housing numbers and current ‘Concept of Sustainable Development’
Therefore all planning applications currently refer back to the National Planning Policy Framework and requires us to find in favour of the ‘Presumption of Sustainable Development.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-planning-policy-framework—2
“development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.“
Such needs would be Social Economic and Environmental. However, soundings are that Environmental needs are set to be outweighed by the Social/Economic needs.
Time line to produce plan:
Formal construction of plan to commence February 2026 and is planned to complete circa 2028.
Followed by Examination and Adoption process that will lead to adoption circa January 2029.
An initial public survey can be accessed on the ‘Lets Talk’ Council page where you will find links to various important documents.
https://letstalk.cornwall.gov.uk/planning-for-our-future
Interim policy statement from Cornwall Planning
https://www.cornwall.gov.uk/media/4vgdpzic/interim-policy-statement-final-april-2025.pdf
Baseline report
Draft plan
Public Consultation
Public Consultations (Walk in events) are currently taking place all over Cornwall where the public are invited to attend and have their say. A list of these are available on the Cornwall Council website.
Lost Neighbourhood Plans
There must exist a certain amount of embarrassment by Officers regarding the fact that only eleven out of 77 Neighbourhood Plans in Cornwall are deemed to be ‘in date’ based on the rationale that those plans make specific site allocations which are deemed to be of sufficient size and protected by14B in the National Planning Policy Framework. These plans involved the public and specifically the Parish Councils in a huge amount of work which involved public engagement and hours of very hard high level detailed presentation. All of which was undertaken by volunteers. There was also funding available to enable the Parish Councils to do a thorough engagement with the public.. A new system called a Neighbourhood Priority Statement is now being piloted. It is to be hoped that original detail can be incorporated into the new statements. No funding has been made available for the proposed NPS.
Call for sites.
As part of the Government directives Cornwall Council have put out a ‘Call for sites’ in order to provide a 2050 land supply. The initial returns were sifted through by a board of Developers and Planning Officers, for suitability. There was a link supplied to the public to make comment, which I shared at the time, but the system was not easy, but may still be followed through the Council website until the 1st January 2026. I commented on two sites in my division when I was the Local Member..
https://cfs.cornwall.urbanintelligence.co.uk
- Climate Emergency
Cornwall declared a climate emergency in 2019, and the new plan is being developed to include policies that address this directly, helping to shape a more resilient future for the region. For example all new approved applications must provide housing to a carbon neutral standard and if this is not achieved a £25,000 levy is taken for each house built which is then used to retrofit the Councils existing housing stock.
- Changed transport philosophy:
The new plan is moving away from the “predict and provide” model, which led to more traffic and pollution. The new “decide and provide” model will focus on working with communities to plan for their specific needs and create healthier, more sustainable places. Notably there appear to be traffic monitoring going on in areas that are defined for development.
However robust the ‘transport plans’ appear on planning applications the reality is that people are generally very reluctant to use public transport (if it is available) bicycle and pedestrian means of movement. The noticeable increase in traffic on all our roads will certainly not improve and is set to be substantially increased.
Jenny Cruse
11/11/2025