Blueprint for 22.5k South Gloucestershire new homes over next 15 years

A final blueprint for where 22,500 new homes will be built and thousands of jobs created in South Gloucestershire over the next 15 years has been published. The Local Plan sets out how housing should be planned and located from 2026 to 2041 – including huge swathes of the greenbelt near Bristol, with seven villages set to be wholly or partially removed from the protected status to allow development for the first time.

There will also be large expansions of some villages and the creation of new communities. But the numbers of properties could have been much bigger, as South Gloucestershire Council will meet a deadline in the nick of time to avoid a new government house-building target that would have forced it to find land for 30 per cent more homes than it already has.

Last July, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner announced changes to the way housing requirements for each area of the country are calculated, which would have meant a huge increase from the existing total of 1,317 new homes every year in the district to 1,717 – a total of 6,000 more over 15 years. A report to South Gloucestershire Council cabinet, which will approve the plan on Monday, February 3, before a vote at full council later next month, said the new rules would apply from March 12 unless two exceptions were met.

These were that the final version of the document was adopted before then, ahead of six weeks of public consultation, and that the Local Plan met at least 80 per cent of the new, higher housing targets, which both apply for the local authority. The council said its proposals were “groundbreaking” in delivering carbon friendly homes and meeting people’s housing needs by allocating homes where they could be best supported by schools, health services and transport.

The plan identifies enough land to develop wind and solar energy to make South Gloucestershire carbon neutral and provides a choice of homes for older people and sites for Gypsies, Travellers and Travelling Showpeople. The council said it also limited the loss of the greenbelt, which covers 40 per cent of the area, with 2.53 per cent being released to make way for housing and jobs.

Cabinet member for planning, regeneration and infrastructure Cllr Chris Willmore (Lib Dem, Yate North) said: “Having a new, fit-for-purpose and legally sound Local Plan is non-negotiable. What is negotiable is how we choose to go about making a plan that really works for local people and communities.

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“That’s what we’ve tried to do through all our consultations so far and why it’s been so heartening to have had some really constructive engagements and community conversations with people in the last 18 months. The plan that we are bringing forward recognises that there is a desperate need for more homes, so that the next generation of local people have the choice to live here if they want to.

“It will allow people coming to the area, for work or because they want to enjoy living in our towns and villages, the chance to do so. Crucially, it will allow us to have a greater degree of control over where new homes are built and ensure that they are genuinely affordable to live in and better for our environment.

“A Local Plan is about so much more than houses though. The allocations we want to make to allow for green energy use, to protect our high-quality green spaces and make transport and other social infrastructure integral to the development of new homes, will mean that we can continue to enjoy the benefits of living in South Gloucestershire.

“The changes made to the planning system by the new government have undoubtedly presented us with challenges, in terms of the mandatory housing targets and the opening up to potential development of greenbelt land. The proposals in this draft plan positively respond to those challenges, however, and will allow us to retain control of our planning system and make improvements to our local area over the next 15 years.”

The document allocates sites for 22,573 new homes, a small increase on previous draft versions that have undergone various rounds of consultation over the past few years. The cabinet report said urban areas and market towns would be prioritised for the development of 3,318 additional properties.

It said greenfield sites would be needed to deliver 9,500 homes, including greenbelt around the Bristol North and East Fringes and some rural villages, to ensure people could remain in their communities, reduce the need for longer car trips and support net zero goals. The plan sets a target of 6,686 affordable homes – 446 per year – with developers required to provide 40 per cent affordable housing in greenfield areas and 30 per cent on brownfield sites, which have previously been built on.

Eleven locations where wind speeds are sufficient to support renewable energy generation will be safeguarded. It also allocates 100 pitches and 15 plots to meet the accommodation needs of Gypsy, Traveller and Showpeople communities, an issue the council has long failed to address, and 1,500 for UWE students.

Villages that will wholly or partially lose their greenbelt status are Alveston, Almondsbury, Easter Compton, Iron Acton, Hortham Village, Hambrook and Wick. Areas set for huge expansion include 2,400 homes on land east of the M4/M5 interchange and Bradley Stoke, including the former Woodlands Golf Course, to be called New Woodlands, and 2,050 homes north of Lyde Green.

Two new neighbourhoods with a total of 1,930 homes will be built on land east of the A4174 ring road between the B4465 and Carsons Road, while North Warmley New Neighbourhood will be created with 1,060 homes. Charfield will expand by 775 homes, Almondsbury by 350 and Easter Compton by 250.

The plan said South Gloucestershire’s population rose by 10.5 per cent to 290,400 from 2011 to 2021 and was forecast to increase to more than 350,000 over the next two decades, while 5,800 families were currently on the housing waiting list. The consultation period will open after full council approves the plan on February 12 before it is sent to the government’s Planning Inspectorate for public examination in spring 2026. The new draft Local Plan is here.