GNLP 2045 Regulation 20 Scoping Consultation

The emerging GNLP should provide an appropriate balance for small, medium and larger sites. Small and medium sized sites have an important role in supporting housing delivery and providing opportunities for a range of developers. Notwithstanding this, larger, urban extension site provide a fundamental contribution to meeting housing requirements and providing opportunities for infrastructure, open space, green infrastructure and community facilities to be planned comprehensively.

In responding to these challenges, the new Local Plan should provide a flexible policy framework that supports the delivery of a broad range of housing types, sizes and tenures. Rather than prescribing housing mixes too rigidly, policies should allow development to respond to the most up-to-date evidence of local housing need at the planning application stage, ensuring that housing provision can adapt to changing demographic, economic and market circumstances throughout the plan period.

The GNLP should support the delivery of sustainable, high-quality homes capable of meeting a variety of housing needs, including market and affordable housing, whilst also encouraging adaptable, accessible and specialist homes where appropriate. This approach will aid in ensuring that new development can contribute towards creating balance and inclusive communities that remain resilient to future changes in housing demand.

The Plan should focus on identifying sustainable and deliverable locations for growth, ensuring the timely delivery of homes in the right places, supported by appropriate infrastructure, services and high-quality environments. This flexible approach will help ensure housing provision remains aligned with evolving local requirements throughout the plan period.

The emerging GNLP should retain an appropriate policy framework for rural housing and development outside settlement limits, recognising the important role that rural settlements can play in meeting local housing needs and supporting the vitality of rural communities. However, given the scale of housing need identified across Greater Norwich, the strategy should also recognise that development of a range of scales and locations will be required to meet the overall housing requirement. This should include planned urban extensions to the Norwich urban area and other established settlements, alongside an appropriate amount of development within and adjoining rural settlements.

The provision of housing in rural locations should therefore form part of a balanced and flexible development strategy, rather than being considered in isolation from the need to accommodate significant levels of growth through larger, well-connected urban extensions. Such extensions can provide housing at scale, while also supporting the comprehensive delivery of infrastructure, transport improvements, green infrastructure, open space and community facilities.

This approach would provide a balanced spatial strategy which recognises the contribution that rural settlements can make, while ensuring that the scale of growth required across Greater Norwich can be accommodated in locations which are capable of supporting sustainable and well-planned communities.

The GNLP should support development which improves accessibility to housing, employment, services and community facilities, with particularly on walking, wheeling, cycling and public transport. The emerging Local Plan should require major development proposals to provide safe, direct and attractive active travel connections to existing networks and services. Site refs. 25822 and 25833 at the Land to the South of Town House Road provide an example of this approach through the opportunity for proposed recreational routes, enhanced walking and cycling connections and connections to the existing footway network.

The GNLP 2045 should establish a clear expectation that new development responds positively to its landscape, townscape, heritage and local character, while allowing for innovative and sustainable design.

In the context of Costessey, the required further growth should be designed as a coherent extension to the existing community, responding to the established character of the area while providing opportunities for a distinctive and high-quality new development. Emerging local plan policies should place attention on landscape integration, retention and enhancement of existing vegetation, treatment of settlement edges, biodiversity gain and the relationship with any nearby heritage assets.

The GNLP 2045 provides an opportunity to establish a clear and deliverable strategy for accommodating the significant increase in housing need identified across Greater Norwich.

In developing the plan, the Councils should ensure that the Growth Strategy is sufficiently flexible to accommodate a range of development types and locations, including sustainable urban extensions to established settlements. The current evidence recognises that further extensions to existing towns and villages will need to be considered alongside brownfield intensification, new settlements and other forms of growth.

In this context, Costessey should continue to be recognised as an important component of the wider Norwich urban area and as a location capable of accommodating further sustainable growth. The existing settlement has a strong relationship with Norwich and provides access to a range of services, facilities, employment and transport connections.