The Conservative authority’s cabinet met on Tuesday, June 23 and agreed to begin the new 30-month process in order to meet the Labour government’s mandatory housing targets.
Introducing the topic at the meeting, cabinet member for planning and housing Roger Upton said: “The new plan will have to be focused on delivering 100% of the government’s mandatory housing target for Rushcliffe.
“Quite how many new sites and houses will be required is difficult, but it’s estimated that around 1,900 additional houses may be required.
“This administration has said to government that it does not believe in their mandatory housing targets and that it believes that local communities know what is best for them.”
Local authorities across the country are devising new housing plans in order to meet the Labour government’s housing targets, which were introduced in 2024 after being scrapped by the previous Conservative government in 2022 – despite that party having brought them in back in 2019.
The new local plans are mandatory under law and their creation has to be agreed to by June 30.
They will be adopted by April 2029, Cllr Upton told the meeting.
Currently, Rushcliffe is also involved in the creation of a document called the Greater Nottingham Strategic Plan (GNSP), in conjunction with Nottingham City Council and Broxtowe Borough Council.
The paper, which is finished and is currently being reviewed by government inspectors, is setting out how Nottingham, Broxtowe and Rushcliffe’s urban areas can grow together by 2041.
GNSP proposals show plans for 11,960 homes in Rushcliffe by that year.
The document is set to be adopted by early 2027, but when the new Local Plan is completed, it will supersede the GNSP in terms of priority for Rushcliffe.
Rushcliffe Borough Council will also cease to exist by April 2028 – more than a year before the new plan is adopted – due to local government reorganisation (LGR) plans and the proposed creation of new councils.
Councillor Jonathan Wheeler, portfolio holder for health, leisure and wellbeing said:
“I’m seconding tonight, not because I’m happy we’re going to be getting lots more houses potentially in the area, it’s mainly because we have to have a local plan otherwise we are open to potential extra development and sites coming that wouldn’t be suitable for the borough.”
“But it is worth highlighting again how mad the situation is, that you’ve got our current (GNSP) local plan going through for examination, which a lot of work’s gone into, and then effectively you’ve got to start again, at the same time as LGR happening.
“When that goes through then you have to relook at it again as a new area.”
“The hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of taxpayer money being spent, not just in Rushcliffe but across the whole country, sort of sums up the terrible situation we’ve got ourselves into thanks to the government, in terms of how the process has all been done.
“It could’ve been done a hell of a lot better than it is. But as has already been outlined, we have to do this. The residents need to be aware that there could be potentially more housing coming than we want because that’s what’s been set by the government and they set the housing policy.
“So residents out there, if they don’t like the current housing policy, don’t like more houses, please take it up with the MP and with government because they’re the ones who are setting up policy.”
By Joseph Connolly, Local Democracy Reporter
