The City Plan Part Two was formally submitted to the Secretary of State for approval on 13 May.
A blueprint to guide new development in the city to 2030, the City Plan aims to provide more genuinely affordable homes for local people, reduce carbon emissions and support economic recovery.
City Plan Part Two will complement the adopted City Plan Part One and help to ensure that the right amount of development takes place in the right places. It will support the council’s planning service to make sure that allocated sites that come forward for new development are managed to secure the higher quality development that is needed in the city.
The full council meeting on 23 April 2020 approved the plan for further consultation and for submission to government.
It is expected that an independent Planning Inspector will shortly be appointed to examine Brighton & Hove’s City Plan Part Two and public hearings could take place in the autumn.
Previous consultation
There have been three rounds of consultation on the City Plan Part 2 including the opportunity last year (September to end October) to raise any final objections to the agreed Plan on the grounds of ‘soundness’ before its submission. As a result, we received 272 comments including a number of petitions. These comments have been collated and submitted for the Planning Inspector to consider.
Most of the content of the document has not changed since its approval in April 2020 but a schedule of proposed changes or ‘main modifications’ have been put forward for the Inspector to consider as part of the examination.
Modifications to the plan
The proposed changes are designed to bring the plan up to date as a result of recent government changes to the way the use of land is classified and to address some of the comments made last year.
More information, including supporting documents and background evidence which the council used when preparing the plan.
City Plan Part 2 policies
Some of the policies in City Plan Part 2 include:
- For new developments, improving housing quality, choice and mix including an emphasis on affordable housing
- Additional new policy to address concerns about houses in multiple occupation (HMOs)
- Allowing a broader range of town centre uses in recognition of changes to high street retail
- New policies that protect community facilities, pubs, markets and local shops
- Ensuring new development is attractive and well designed
- Requiring sustainable drainage in new development to improve flood resilience
- Requiring stringent standards to meet our objective of carbon neutrality by 2030 and extending eco-friendly standards to all development
- Seeking biodiversity improvements through new development