Rochford's Local Plan has been frozen by ministers since October. The leader says its final consultation may now run over Christmas unless the deadline moves.

The final public consultation on Rochford’s new Local Plan, the document that decides where homes can be built in Rayleigh, Rochford, Hockley and the villages up to 2042, may now have to run over Christmas, the leader of Rochford District Council said on Friday 6 November.

The plan has been frozen by the Government for more than a month. Cllr Adi Malviya said the council needed a decision from ministers by 5 November to hold a proper six-week consultation before the 31 December submission deadline, and that decision has not come.

“I want to be open with residents about what this delayed timetable means,” he said in a statement published by the council. “Even if the Government lifts the holding direction today, to meet the current deadline the consultation would need to run over Christmas, “should is far from ideal.”

Why the plan is on hold

On 23 September an extraordinary meeting of the full council voted to take the plan to its final, Regulation 19 stage, but with a number of proposed housing sites taken out.

A week later the housing minister, Matthew Pennycook, stepped in. In a letter dated 30 September he told Cllr Malviya he was “disappointed to learn” that the council had “removed a substantial number of sites, resulting in a significant shortfall against its identified local housing need.”

He wrote that this “risks advancing a plan that is unlikely to be found sound or legally compliant at examination”, and used the Secretary of State’s powers under section 21A of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 to direct the council “not to take any step in connection with the Plan” while he decides whether to intervene further. The letter says he will also consider directions under section 27 of the same Act “should this be necessary to drive the delivery of a sound plan.”

He asked for the council’s justification for removing the sites, and the evidence behind the plan, by 7 October. The council says it sent that on time. On 2 October Cllr Malviya had also written to the Housing Secretary and the minister asking for an urgent meeting to set out “significant concerns regarding a number of proposed site allocations” and the administration’s reasons for backing the plan as agreed.

Timeline of the Rochford Local Plan: 23 September, full council removes a number of sites; 30 September, the housing minister's holding direction letter; 7 October, the council sends the evidence requested; 5 November, the latest date for a decision according to the council, which did not come; 31 December, the current submission deadline; March, a possible extended deadline if the Government offers one
How the Rochford Local Plan timetable ran out. Graphic by Southend Today
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What the leader says the delay means

The council had asked for two more months even before the freeze. “It was already a tight timeline to get it done by 31 December, and we requested a two-month extension to give councillors more time to read and understand the evidence, but we were on track,” Cllr Malviya said.

A decision by 5 November, he said, “would have provided two weeks to prepare for the consultation, including making any necessary changes, printing materials, booking venues for consultation sessions, and organising publicity, and six weeks for residents and other consultees to have their say.”

Squeezed into what is left of the year, the consultation would also close on the day the plan has to go to the Government. “It also means the consultation would close on the same day the plan must be submitted, leaving no time for councillors to discuss the responses before submission,” he said. “Every comment will still be passed to the Independent Planning Inspector, who will consider them as part of the examination.”

He said the Government had indicated “there may be an opportunity to extend the deadline until March”, and he hoped that would be offered when ministers respond to the evidence. “I call upon the Government to do right by Rochford residents and provide enough time for meaningful consultation. We remain ready to move as soon as the holding direction is lifted.”

The council’s case for having a plan at all is that without one, in Cllr Malviya’s words, “the district is more exposed to speculative planning applications for development in the wrong places, without the infrastructure our communities need.” Rochford’s previous Local Plan has expired, according to the council’s Local Plan page.

What it means for you

  • No consultation is open yet. The last round, on the early draft, ran from 9 February to 24 March 2026, and those materials, including an interactive map of the draft sites, are still on the council’s site. The final round cannot start until the minister lifts the direction.
  • If it does start in the next few weeks, expect a short window that runs through the Christmas holidays. The council says it will “do everything we can to make it easy for people to take part during a busy time of year.” Comments you send will reach the independent inspector even if councillors do not get to debate them first.
  • If the deadline moves to March, there would be time for the full six weeks the council planned.
  • Southend got the opposite instruction. The same minister directed Southend City Council to publish its draft Local Plan by 6 November, and it published it on 2 November. For applications in the district now, see how Rochford’s planning decisions changed on 31 October.

The council says it will keep residents updated at every stage. We will report when the Government responds.