Chelmsford City Council to consider additional housing sites consultation

Chelmsford City Council is reviewing its draft Local Plan and is proposing a tightly-focused consultation on additional housing sites. 

Changes to the Local Plan are needed in light of several factors outside the city council’s control that have affected future house building. These include:

•    The Government cancelling the A12 widening. 
•    Three key sites having either stalled or been significantly delayed.
•    Other developers slowing down their build rates. 
•    The Government’s new housing target now having to be met in full (a change since May 2025).

The proposed additional sites will ensure the council has a pipeline of development sites that can provide five years’ worth of housing for the district as required by the Government in the National Planning Policy Framework. 

What changes are being proposed?

Papers published today, and to be considered by Chelmsford Policy Board on 6 November, propose the addition of 11 new housing sites and expanding the allocations at three existing housing sites. In total, this will provide 1,592 additional homes over the lifetime of the Local Plan until 2041.

The identified sites will provide a variety of new homes which will include affordable housing and older persons homes. These new homes will help the council meet the housing needs target set for it by the Government to provide 1,210 new homes across the district each year.

Also included in the proposal is the addition of a further 10,500sqm of employment space to a proposed employment site. 

As part of the review, some key consequential changes will need to be made to Strategic Policy S6 (Housing and Employment Requirements) and Strategic Policy S7 (The Spatial Strategy), so these will be included in the consultation process too.

Why have these sites been chosen?

An essential criterion for the proposed additional sites is that they can be delivered in full or part over the next five years.

Detailed research and testing has been carried out at each location to ensure their suitability. This takes into consideration matters like natural land features, neighbouring land use, archaeology and heritage and also, crucially, considers whether there are spaces in local schools.

The sites have been chosen as they follow the approach set out in the adopted Local Plan which focuses housing and employment growth around three sustainable areas: Central and Urban Chelmsford, North Chelmsford, and South and East Chelmsford. These areas can provide services and facilities that new homes need, like schools and recreation areas, and are already part of the local highway network.

Developers of the additional and expanded sites will also be required to provide or make financial contributions towards building or improving local infrastructure. This investment could help to provide new facilities for residents like a community centre, sports pitches or perhaps space for a local shop.

Why are these changes to the Local Plan needed?

Several factors outside of the council’s control have contributed to the need to review the Local Plan.  

In May this year, changes to the way in which the Government calculates the amount of new housing the council must provide each year were implemented when the Local Plan became five years old. This saw Chelmsford's target number of new homes increase by 79% to 1,437 dwellings per year from when the Local Plan was adopted in 2020. As this is such a big jump in numbers, the Government is allowing councils in Chelmsford’s position to use ‘transitional arrangements’ meaning we have to meet at least 80% of this new housing target in our Local Plan.

With a larger number of homes needed to meet the Government’s target, a review of the council’s housing land supply took place in August. It revealed that the Government's decision to cancel the A12 Chelmsford to A120 Widening Scheme had impacted the availability of development land included in the Local Plan and that three strategic sites had been significantly delayed or had stalled, while other sites were moving more slowly than anticipated.

These changes mean the council does not have enough allocated housing sites to meet the need for the first five years of the Local Plan. This must be addressed before the Local Plan can be submitted to the Planning Inspectorate next summer.

Leader of Chelmsford City Council, Councillor Stephen Robinson said:

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“Chelmsford City Council is forced to identify extra sites for homes and jobs at this time. Government decisions and other factors outside our control mean the council can no longer meet the Government’s legal target for housebuilding. Without finding further sites in our Local Plan, we risk uncontrolled development, with houses getting permission in unsuitable places.

“We have to identify sites that can be built out within the next five years and have capacity with facilities like schools. With that in mind, there are very few possible sites to consider.”

Cllr Stephen Robinson, Leader of Chelmsford City Council

Have your say

If the proposals are approved by Chelmsford Policy Board, a focused consultation will open on Thursday 20 November and will run for seven weeks. Although this timing is not ideal it cannot be delayed any longer, or the council will miss the legal deadline to submit a revised Local Plan.

You will be able to read and make comments on the consultation documents on the council's Planning Policy Consultation Portal. You will be able to have your say in other ways too, like visiting an exhibition at the Civic Centre or sending us your feedback in the post. Full details of how you will be able to take part can be found on the Chelmsford City Council website.

If you made comments to the last consultation in February/March 2025, you will not need to submit them again. 

Find out more

Papers submitted to the Chelmsford Policy Board regarding the additional sites consultation can be read on the Chelmsford City Council website.