The meeting was scheduled to include discussion of the publication of the South Warwickshire Local Plan: Preferred Options document¹, a Sustainability Appraisal of the plan, and an updated timetable for the plan's preparation.

South Warwickshire Local Plan: Preferred Options

The most significant topic scheduled to be discussed was the South Warwickshire Local Plan: Preferred Options document. It is intended to be the third stage of a public consultation, where residents and stakeholders will be invited to comment on the council's emerging plans for development. The document contained an overview of the work that has been completed on the plan, an explanation of the process for preparing the plan, and some details about the preferred options.

It is intended that the document will set out how the joint plan will deliver new homes and places of employment, alongside the supporting infrastructure that is required to deliver this growth in a sustainable manner.

The purpose of this report is to endorse the South Warwickshire Local Plan Preferred Options document (attached at Appendix 1) for consultation commencing in January 2025. This report sets out the background to the consultation document itself. It also seeks to note the accompanying Sustainability Appraisal.

The report pack also includes the following statement about the South Warwickshire Local Plan:

It is proposed that this Part 1 of the South Warwickshire Local Plan will set out the overall strategy for the pattern, scale and design quality of places within South Warwickshire, and make sufficient provision for housing, employment, retail, leisure and other commercial development, along with infrastructure, community facilities, conservation and enhancement of the natural, built and historic environment and planning measures to address climate change mitigation and adaptation. Primarily, the Local Plan sets out how we will grow the South Warwickshire economy and create jobs through delivery of the net zero carbon agenda. It will ensure that the necessary infrastructure and the right type and number of homes are delivered to support the level of jobs we want to see across South Warwickshire to 2050.

The report also explains how the local authorities have arrived at the number of homes and jobs they are proposing. The Housing and Economic Development Needs Assessment (HEDNA) was used to establish the number of new homes required to be built in the area, but the report also acknowledges that the government has recently consulted on a revised standard method for calculating housing numbers, and that the final number will need to take account of this, as well as the number of new homes required to be built to address unmet housing need from Coventry and the Greater Birmingham area.

In addition, a South Warwickshire Employment Land Study (SWELS) was completed in 2024, as was a West Midlands Strategic Employment Sites Study (WMSESS).

The document also identifies that a number of sites have been put forward for development through a call for sites process, and that these will be assessed to establish their suitability. The report explains that the councils' final development strategy and list of sites for development will not be finalised until the subsequent stages of the plan's preparation have been completed. It is likely that many of the sites put forward will not be included in the final version of the local plan.

Sustainability Appraisal

A Sustainability Appraisal (SA) has also been prepared that is intended to accompany the consultation on the South Warwickshire Local Plan: Preferred Options.

A Sustainability Appraisal (SA) is the process of informing and influencing the preparation of a Local Plan to optimise its sustainable development performance as the plan is prepared over several distinct stages, including examination in public, and finally adoption.

The Sustainability Appraisal itself contains a lot of technical information but includes a number of maps that illustrate the distribution of environmental designations across the area, such as those which relate to flood risk and biodiversity.

It assesses each of the proposed development sites against thirteen different objectives which are detailed in the Sustainability Appraisal report. These include for example, flood risk and cultural heritage.

The SA that has been prepared for the Preferred Options stage explores the following reasonable alternatives as part of the plan-making process:  12 draft policies  51 Policy Directions  24 Strategic Growth Locations  12 New Settlement Locations  2 Housing figures- HEDNA figure and the proposed standard method (to respond to the Government’s NPPF consultation)  Employment figure recommended by the employment study  1 Gypsy and Traveller Site.

For example, in respect of flood risk, the SA uses data from the Environment Agency's Flood Map for Planning. The report pack also explains that a Strategic Flood Risk Assessment (SFRA) has been produced.

The SA also uses a number of other publicly available datasets to assess each of the proposed sites. These include for example data from Historic England, the Ordnance Survey and Natural England.

Timetable

Finally, an updated timetable for the South Warwickshire Local Plan was scheduled to be discussed, showing an anticipated submission date of September 2026, and adoption in December 2027. It is anticipated that the next stage of public consultation (Regulation 19) will take place between December 2025 and February 2026.

Members are asked to approve this updated Local Plan timetable (set out in full at [Appendix 3](https://democracy.stratford.gov.uk/documents/s71799/Appendix+3+-+SWLP+Revised+Timetable.pdf)) and support its inclusion in both Council’s forthcoming Local Development Scheme (LDS) updates.